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AUT

THE

CATHOLIC CHURCH

IN THE

UNITED STATES:

PAaES OF ITS HISTORY.

HENRY DE COURCY,

AUTHOR OK " LK8 8EKV ANTES DE DIEU EN CANADA," ETC.

TUAN8LATED AND ENLARGED

By JOHN GIL MARY SHEA,

AUTHOR OF THE " DISCOVEKY AND EXPLOKATION OF "HE MISSISSIPPI," " HISTORT

OF THE CATHOLIC MISSIONS," ETC., AND MEMBER OF THE N. Y., MASS.,

MARYLAND, AND WISC. HISTORICAL SOCIETIES.

SECOND EDITION, REVISED.

NEW YORK:

EDWARD DUNIGAN AND BROTHER,

(JAMES B. KIRKER,)

151 FULTON STREET.
1867.

Blbliotheijue des bvf'Hnanstes

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866,

By JAME3 B. KIBEEB,

In the Clent'a Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern

District of New York.

B. 0. VALENnME,

BTIBBOTTFKR AND XLECTROTTFIST,
IT Datch-tt, cor. Fulton, N. Y.

■f

them

' »f» BpceUencj),
THE MOST REV. CAJETAN BEDINI,

ARCHBISHOP OF THEBES,
NUNCIO APOSTOLIC,

€{113 Unlunu 10 EfspntftiUii Dfitirntri;

THE AUTHOR AND TRANSLATOR.

■f

Itaqne etiam non assccutis, voluisse abunde pulchrum est, atqiie
magiiificum : nee dubitamus multa esse quae nos prictenermt. Homi-
nes enim siimus. — Pliny.

PREFACE

TO THE SECOND EDITION,

itque
[omi-

" The Catholic Church in the United States" being, as stated
in the former preface, "a contribution to the History of the
Church in Maryland, Virginia, and the Middle States," was writ-
ten originally in French, for the Ami de la Religion and the
Univers.

Although bearing more especially on the French element, and,
in some instances, advancing opinions that may be questioned,
yet, as coming from a man of integrity, pit ty, and ability, the
sketches were, I thought, worth presenting to my fellow Catho-
lics in the United States, and I still adhere to my original appre-
ciation of the work.

The following translation appeared first in the columns of the
Leader^ and, during its publication, elicited the highest commen-
dation from the Catholic clergy and the Catholic press, many
portions being freely copied. Mr. De Courcy, in the Leader^
constantly requested correction or further information, and, before
its publication in book-form, submitted the portion relating to
each diocese to persons whose rank in the Church would com-
mand respect, did I suppose it proper to name them.

The first edition was in general well received, and it was with
no little amazement that I found one or two periodicals disposed
to make it a ground for assailing the author's private character,

PREFACE.

liis motives, and liis lionesty. Tliesc vngiie charges, launched
fortli in accents of passion and wrath, so evidently betray their
source, that it would bo folly to regard them.

The accuracy of the work is admitted, for in all the lengthy
and repeated remarks of these critics, they point out but one
error of judgment, one important omission, and a few typographi-
cal errors. More than these the Christian-hearted reader will be
inclined to excuse in an author whose shattered health compelled
him to suspend his work, and seek a more genial climate.

As a friend of his, I concluded the sketches of New York,
having written almost all that does not refer to the French ele-
ment, and I did expect censure, rather on my additions, than
the amiable author's work or person.

The want of a new edition has left me but httle time to cor-
rect many little inaccuracies, but I have supplied an omitted
account of Mount St. Mary's.

To such as think that too little space is given to Maryland, I
would state that the author deferred entering more fully into its
Catholic history, inasmuch as he was aware that the Rev. Charles
I. White, D. D., is engaged on a work which he is, perhaps, the
only one competent in the country to give us — a History of the
Catholic Church in Maryland from the earliest times.

John Gilmary Shea.
Nbw York, October 17. 1856.

CONTENTS.

DXDIOATION PAOI 111

FRirAOB ▼

CnArTER I. — The Early Indian Missions,

Misitons of the Norwegians In tlie nnte-Columblnn times— Spanish missions In Florida,
New Mexico, Texas, and Calirornia— French missions among the Indians In Maine,
New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the valley of the Mississippi 11

Chap. II. — ^Tiie Colonial Church.

Maryland— Settled by Catholics— Their persecution — Thoir emancipation— From the
year 1634 to 17T4. 22

Chap. III. — The Chcrch in the Republic.

Maryland— Father John Carroll — How the United States granted liberty of conscience
to the Catholics- Mission of Father Carroll to Canada 36

Chap. IV. — The Church during the Revolution.
Father Carroll and Father Floquet— Father Carroll at Rock Creek 47

Chap. V. — The Church in the Republic.
Maryland (1776-1790)— Negotiations for the erection of an Episcopal See 54

CiiAP. VI. — Diocese of BALTiMoaK,

Consecration of Bishop Carroll— J«sult College at Georgetown— Sulpltian Seminary at
Baltimore — ^The French clergy in the United States — Bishop Neale coa(yutor— Reor-
ganization of the Society of Jesus — Importance of French immigration 63

Chap. VII. — ^The Church in Maryland.

The Carmelites — Poor Clares— Visitation nuns— Sisters of Charity— Baltimore an eccle-
siastical province with four suffragans— Death of Archbishop Carroll 76

Chap. VIII.— Diocese of Baltimore. (1815-1828.)

Most Rov. Leonard N«ale, second Archbishop— Most Rev. Ambrose Mar6chal, fhird
Archbishop— Difficulties of his administration— Progress of Catholicity— Bishops ap-
pointed for New Orleans, Charleston, Richmond, and Cincinnati — Labors of the Sul-
pitians — Death of Archbishop Mar6chal 08

CONTENTS.

Chap. IX. — Dioiehe ok Haltimoue. (18*28-1 920.)

Moat Rev. JaniM 'Whltflcld, fourth Archbishop of Rnltliiioro— The OblntM of St. FrnncM
ftnd the colored Catholics— The A^Rociatioii for the Propngiition of the Faith and the
Leopoldlne Socloty— First Provincial Council of Baltlinori', and a lutrospcct on pro-
vlona synods of tho clergy 118

Chap. X. — Diockhe ok Baltimork. (1829-1834.)

Becond Provincial Conncll— Decrees as to tho election of Mshops— Decrees for confldlntf
to the Jesuits tho Negroes an<l Indians— Tho colony of Liberia and Bishop Barron —
The CarmellteB— Liberality of Archbishop Whltflcld— Ills character and death... ViQ

Chap. XI. — Diocese ok Baltimore. (1834-1840.)

Most Rev. Samuel Ecclcston, D. D., fifth Archbishop of Baltimore— The Brothers of tho
Christian Schools— The Redemptorlsts— The German Catholics— The Lazarl.Hs— Third
Council of Baltimore— New Episcopal Sees— Fourth Council of Baltimore— Bishop
Forbln-Janson in America— I'loceses of Ulchmond and Wheeling, and a glance at re-
ligion in Virginia 145

CiiAP. XII. — Diocese ok Baltimore. (1840-1846.)

Decrees as to ecclesiastical property— Fifth Council of Baltimore— Decrees against di-
vorce and mixed marriages— Subdivision of tho dioceses— Sixth Council of Baltimore
— Decree as to the Immaculate Conception- Labors of the Society of Jesus in tho
United States 170

Chap. XIII. — Diocese ok Baltimore. (1846-1852.)

Election of Plus IX.— Popularity of the Sovereign Tontltf In the United States— Peter's
Pence— Seventh Council of Baltimore— Division of the United States Into six ecclesi-
astical provinces— Death of Archbishop Eccloston— Most Rev. Francis P. Kenriclc,
sixth Archbishop of Baltimore— National Council of Baltimore and new Episcopal
Beea. 190

Chap. XIV.— Pennsylvania. (1680-1810.)

First missions at Philadelphia, Goshonhoppen, Conewago, Lancaster — Influence of
French intervention in securing respect and toleration for Catholicity— The Augm-
tinians in Pennsylvania— The Franciscans— Schism in the German Church of tha
Holy Trinity— Foundation of the episcopal See of Philadelphia 207

Chap. XV. — Diocese of PiiiLADELrniA. (1810-1834.)

The RL Rev. Michael Egan, first bishop— Very Rev. Louis de Barth, administrator—
Rt. Rev. Henry Conwell, second bishop -Schism of St, Mary's Church— Very Rev,
William Mathews, administrator— Rt Rev. Francis P. Kenriclc, coadjutor, then third
bishop— Religious condition of the diocese in 1834 S22i

Chap. XVI. — Diocese or Philadelphia. (1833-1844.)

Commencement and progress of the anti-CathoUc agitation— Various manceuvres of the
fanatics— Tho Native party- The Philadelphia riots 240

Rig

CONTKNTS.

ClIAP. XV'II.— DlOCK.SK OK I'lllLAKKI.PIIlA. (1811-lHftB.)

Division of tlio (llocoso— Stiito of Dclnwarr— The Lnillos of tlio Riiired lloftrt— The Sin-
ters of this VUltfttlon— Tli(> SlMtcrs of Notre Diiiiu'— ''"uthrr Vir^'ll Ilnrbcr niid hU
fftinlly— Works nf lilHhop l<\ l*. Kciirlck— lilt trnii^^liitloti to tlw iiictropolltun See of
Bttltttnoro— Ut Ilov. John N. Nuuiimtiii, fourth Dishop of l>lilliiilul|ilila. 259

ClIAI'. XVril.— rENNHVr.VANIA. (1750-1840.)

HJoccso of Plltaburc— The Recollects at Fort Dufiue^no— The Rev. Fatlur nrntiern—
Sketch of Prince Doinetrlus Oallitzln 'iVi

CitAP, XIX. — Diocese op PiTTHBuaa — Diocesk or Eiiie. (179'2-18.')<V)

The Abb6 Flagot at Plttsbiiri;— The Rev. F. X. O'Brien nml CliRrlos R. Mutfiilre— Tlio
Poor Clares— The Colony of Asylum— The Chevalier John Keating'— Colony of lliir-
man Bottom— Episcopate of the Right Rev. Dr. O'Connor— HUiers of Mcrey— Tho
Brothers of the Presentation— The Franciscan Brothers — The Benedlctliu'!*— Pas.slon-
Isls— Early missions at Erie- Bishop Flaget— The present state of the dloccso— Tho
Benedictine nuns— Retrospect 2S3

Chap. XX.— State ok New Youk. (Ifi42-1708.)

Missions among the Iroquois — Father Joguos — Father Brcs-sanl— Father Lo Moyne—
Emigration uf CliriiitianB to Canada— Close of tlio Jesuit missions In New York.. 814

Chap. XXI.— Diocese of New York. (1640-17GO.)

Tho Dutch— Tho English occupation and Oovernor Dongan— First Ctdonlal Assembly
in 1688— Jesuits at Now York— Kovolutlon, and persecution of the Calhollc3— Pro-
tended negro plot, and execution of the Rev. John Ury 3.34

fee of
[ugiw-
>f tba
2U7

ator—
Rev.
third

.. 22i

. of the
240

Chap. XXII.— .State ok New Yokk. (1776-1786.)

Constitution of the State— The English Party and Protestantism— Commencement of
Catholic worship in the city of New York— St. Peter's Church— Father Wlielan and
Father Nugent— A trustee of St. Peter's in 1780 815

Chap. XXIII. — State and Diocese of New Yokk. (1787-1813.)

Father O'Brien and the yellow fever In New York— The negro, Peter Toussaint— Tho
Abbe Sibourg — Fathers Kohlmann and Fonwick — Erection of an episcopal See at
New York— Rt. Rev. Luke Concanen, first bishop— His death at Naples— Father
Benedict Fenwick, administrator — The Now York Literary Institution— Father Fen-
wick and Thomas Paine — Father Kohlmann anil tho secrecy of the confessional. . 855

Chap. XXIV.— Diocese of New York. (1815-1842.)

Right Rev. John Connolly, second Bishop of New York— Condition of the diocese—
Sketch of the Rev. F. A. Malou— Bishop Connolly's first acts— His clergy— The Rev.
Mr. Taylor, and his ambitious designs— Con vei*slons— The Rev. John Richard— Spread

-TSP"

CONTENTS.

of Catholicity— Death of Bishop Connolly— Very Kev. -Tohn Power, Adminlstrntor—
Right Kov. John Dubois, third Bishop of Now York — Yisilntion of his dioct'se— His
labors for the cause of education— Controversies with the Protestants— Very Rev.
Foiix Varola— Kev. Thomas C. Levins— Difllcalties with trustees- German immiprn-
tlon — Conversion of Kev. Maximilian CErtel— Appointment of a Coadjutor — Death of
Bisliop Dubois 8S3

Chap. XXY.— Diockbe ok Nkw York. (1838-1856.)

Eight Kov. John Hughes, Ooadjr.tor and then Bishop of New York — Tic overthrows
tnisteeism— The sciio 1 question — Bishop Hughes before the Common Counoil— St.
John's College — The Ladies of the Sacred Heart and Madame Gallitzin— The Rc-
demptorists — Tiie Tractarian movement, and the conversions resulting from it —
Tlie Trench Church and the Bisliop of Nancy— Appointment of Uiglit Kev. John
McCloskey as Coadjutor— The Sisters of Mercy- Keorganlzalion of the Sisters of
Charity — Division of the diocese — Brothers of the Christian Schools — Progress of
Catholicity in other parts of the diocese — New York erected into an archicplscopal
See — Erection of the Sees of Brooklyn and New irk— First Provincial Council of New
York — The Church Property Bill and the discnssion with Senator Brooks-Kct-
rospoct 410

Chap. XXVI. — Dioceses of Albany, Buffalo, Buooklvn, and Nkwark.

Diocese of Albany — Early Catholic afTairs- Church and Mission of the Presentation at
Ogdensburg — St. Regis — Chaplains at Ticonderoga and Crown Point — Rev. Mr. de la
Valinl6re and his church on Lake Champlain — Church at Albany— Early pastors—
Increiuse of Catholicity — Appointment of Kt. Kev. John McCloskey as flrst bishop —
His administration— Instltntions— Religious Orders— Jesuits — Ladies of the Sacred
Heart — Brothers of the Christian Schools.

Diocese of Buffalo — French chaplains at Fort Niagara— Early Catholic matters— A[)-
polntment of tho Rt. Kev. John Timon as bisliop — Tlie Jesuits, Redemptorists, Fran-
ciscans, Christian Brothers, and Ladies of the Sacred Heart— Sisters of Ciiarity, Sis-
ters of St. Joseph, Sisters of St. Bridget and of Our Lady of Charity— State of tlio
diocese.

Diocese of Brooklyn— Catholicity on Long Island— First church In Brooklyn— Progress
— Rt. Kev. John Loughlln flrst bishop— Visitation Nuns— Sisters of Charity— Sisters
of Mercy— Dominican Sisters.

Diocese of Newark — Catholicity in New Jersey — Its progress — Appointment of Rt. Rev.
James R. Bayley, flrst bishop— Seton Hall 451

.1!

CiiAP. XXVII. (1853, 1854.)

Mission of tho Nuncio, the Most Rev. Archbishop Bedinl— His arrival—Plot of tho
Italians — Their slanders — Refutation— Death of Sassi — Reaction — Violence of the
Germans— Result of his mission 499

Chap. XXVIII. (1854-1856.)

Reaction against the Catholics — Organization of the Know-Nothings 52t

Conclusion 681

APPENDIX. , 589

II
t\

ei
it
hi

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

IN THE UNITED STATES.

CHAPTER I.

THE EARLV INDIAN MISSIONS.

52f

. 681

580

Missions of the Norwegians in the ante-Colnmbian times — Spanish missions in Florida,
New Mexico, Texas, and CaHfornia— French missions among the Indians in Maine,
New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, and tlie valley of the Mississippi.

The missionary spirit is inherent in the CathoUc Church, and it
dates from the moment when our Lord said to his apostles, "Go
and teach all nations." Before St. Paul had left Asia Minor,
missionaries had already penetrated to Italy and Spain, and from
their day to our own, each succeeding age has produced her
heroes, devoting their lives to the greatest of human entei"prises
— the conversion of souls. When the still pagan Nor thmen dis-
covered Iceland in the eighth century of our present era, they
found on the shore crosses, bells, and sacred vessels of Irish work-
manship. The island had therefore been visited by Cathoho
missionaries, and the Irish clergy may with justice lay claim to
the discovery of the New World.

The Northmen, after founding a colony in Iceland, pushed
their discovery westward, and soon discovered a part of the west-
ern continent, to which, from the agreeable verdure with which
it was covered, they gave the name of Greenland. When these
hardy explorers returned to Norway, they found the idols of

IpBP

-_?.i«j' — n

_i^ JU. .

rtut-

THE CATHOLIC CHUKCH

Scandinavia hurled to the dust. The kino- had embraced tlia
true faith, and the whole people had renounced paganism. A
missionary set snil in the first vessel that steered towards the new-
found land, and ere long the little colony was Catholic. Iceland
and Greenland soon had their chiu-ches, their convents, their
bishops, their colleges, their libraries, their apostolic men. The
explorers Beorn and Leif having coasted southerly along the
Atlantic shore towards the bays where the countless spires of Bos-
ton and New York now tower, missionaries immediately offered
to go and preach the gospel to the savage nations of the South ;
and it is certain that in 1120 Bishop Eric visited in person Vin-
land, or the land of vines. The colonies of the Northmen on the
west coast of Greenland continued to flourish till 1406, when
the seventeenth and last Bishop of Garda was sent from Norway :
those on the eastern coast subsisted till 1540, when they were
destroyed by a physical r'^volution which accumulated the ice in
that zone from the 60th degree of latitude. Thus, a focus of
Christianity not only long existed in Greenland, but from it rays
of faith momentarily illumined part of the territory now em-
braced in the United States, to leave it sunk in darkness for some
centuries more.

But the great Columbus, by discovering another part of
America, soon drew the attention of Europe to the New World,
and the navigators of Spain, Portugal, France, and England ex-
plored it in every direction. All were animated by the same
spirit, and, despite national jealousy, actuated by the same motive.
The adventurer, the soldier, and the pi-iest always landed together ;
and the proclamation made to the natives by the Spaniards bears
these remarkable words: " The Church : the Queen and Sovereign
of the World." Tho Protestant citizens of the United States
boast of the Puritan settlement in New England as the cradle
of their race : but long before these separatists landed at Plymouth
in 1620, and while the English settlers hugged the Atlantic shore,

IN THE UNITED STATES.

too indifterent to instruct in Christianity the Indians whose hunt-
ing grounds they had usurped, other portions of the continent,
and even of our territory, were evangelized from north to south
and from east to west. These missions are divided into three
very distinct classes : the Dominicans, Franciscans, and Jesuits oi
Spain share between them the south from Florida to California ;
the Recollects and Jesuits of France traverse the country in every
direction from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the shores of the
Pacific, and from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson's Bay ; and
finally, the English Jesuits plant the Cross for a time amid the
ti'ibes of Maryland, during the short period of Catholic supremacy
in that colony.

The Spaniards were the first to preacli the gospel in the terri-
tory now actually comprised in the United States. Sebastian
Cabot had, indeed, under the flag of England, explored the At-
lantic shore in 1497, but Ponce de Leon was the first to land
with a view of conquest. From 1512, the date of the discovery
of Florida, numerous expeditions succeeded one another, and all
were attended by missionaries ; but the savage inhabitants oifered
their invaders a more effectual resistance than the natives of Ilis-
j)aniola or the sovereigns of Mexico. In Florida the Spaniards
met disaster after disaster, and from 1512 to 1542, Leon, Cor-
dova, Ayllon, Narvaez, and Soto, successively, with most of their
forces, perished in Florida or the valley of the Mississippi. Of
the expedition of Narvaez, Cab(>za de Vaca escaped almost alone,
and after almost incredible hardship and danger, pushed through
from the Atlantic to the shores of the Pacific, thus acquiring the
glory of having first traversed North America from east to west.
He was hospitably received by the Spaniards of Mexico at their
outposts in Sonora, and there his account inflamed the zeal of
Friar Mark, of Nice, who in 1539 resolved to bear the Cross to
the inland tribes. His religious enterprise failed, but his attempt
remains as the hardiest exploration yet attempted of unknown

M-imui^^

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

regions. In 1542 another expedition left Mexico, commandod by
Coronado, and turned towards the northeast. After leaching the
head-waters of the Arkansas, he turned back to the Rio Grande,
in the present diocese of Santa Fe. Here the commander re-
solved to return to Mexico, but such wfis not the idea of the Fran-
ciscan missionaries in his party. They had come to preach the
Gospel, and would not retreat from the field they had chosen.
They accordingly allowed their companions to depart, and while
Coronado and his soldiers resumed the route to Mexico, Father
Padilla and Brother John of the Cross prostrated themselves to
offer humbly to God the sacrifice of their lives for the salvation of
the Indians. Their oft'er was accepted, and while on their way to
the town of Quivira, they were both pierced with arrows, victims
of their charitable devotedness. Such are the first martyrs of the
Church in the United States, and their death is only fifty years
subsequent to the discovery of the New World by Columbus.

After an interval of forty years, the Franciscans penetrated into
New Mexico, which now forms the diocese of Santa F6. Many
sank beneath the Indian torture, but their places were filled up by
new missionaries, and their labors resulted in the conveision of
wliole tribes. Before the English had formed a single settlement,
either in Virginia or New England, all the tribes on the Rio
Grande were converted and civilized ; their towns, still remarkable
for their peculiar structure, were decorated with chui'ches and
public edifices, which superficial travellers in our day ascribe to
the everlasting Aztecs. In the next century the incursions of tlie
fierce nations of the plains, the wild Apache and the daring Na
vajo, destroyed most of these towns : the weakness of the Spanish
government allowed the ruins to extend ; but the inhabitants are
still Catholic, and are now the object of a spiiitual regeneration.
New Mexico having been conquered by the United States in
1845, the Holy See was enabled to exercise jurisdiction without
emban'assment ; and a bishop — the Rt. Rev. Dr. Lamy, a French-

IN THE UNITED STATES.

man by birth — aided by several clergymen of his own laud, gov-
erns the diocese of Santa Fe, where he has already revived the
faith, restored discipline, and repaired many of the devastations
of years.

While the children of St. Francis of Assisi were thus in the
sixteenth century carrying on the spiritual conquest of New Mex-
ico, the Dominicans pursued their missions in Florida, though not
without constant persecution. They first call to their aid the
Jesuits, then yield the field to the Franciscans, and these three
religious orders bedew with their purest blood the country now
embraced in the dioceses of Savannah and Mobile. At last the
ardent zeal of several generations of martyrs receives its recom-
pense, and the natives of Florida embraced Christianity. Villages
of neophytes gathered around the Spanish posts. Devotional
works were translated and printed in the Mobilian dialects, and
the Doctrina Cristiana of Pareja, in Timuquana, is the oldest
published work in any dialect of the natives of the United States.
The convent of St. Helena, in the city of St. Augustine, became
the centre whence the Franciscans spread in every direction, even
to the extremities of the peninsula and among the Appalachian
clans. The faith prospered among these tribes, and the cross
towered in every Indian village, till the increasing English colony
of Carolina brought war into these peaceful realms. In 1*703 the
valley of the Appalachicola was ravaged by an armed body of cov-
etous fanatics ; the Indian towns were destroyed ; the missiona-
ries slaughtered, and their forest children, their neophytes, sharing
their fate, or, still more unfortunate, being hurried away and sold
as slaves in the English West Indies. Fifty years after, the whole
colony of Florida fell into the hands of England : the missions
were destroyed, the Indians dispersed, and St. Helena, the con-
vent whence Christianity had radiated over the peninsula, became
a barrack, and such is that venerable monastery in our own days.
Driven from their villages and fields, which the English seized,

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

the unhappy Floridians were forced to wander in the wilderness
and resume the nomadic Hfe of barbarism, from which Christi-
anity had reclaimed them. Buried in their pathless everglades,
without spiritual guides, they took the name of Seminoles, which
in their own language means Wanderers^ and have gradually lost
the faith, and have become the scourge of the whites. In vain
have the English and our government since, by long and expen-
sive wars, endeavored to expel them. Under Jackson's policy,
the government attempted to deport them beyond the Mississippi,
as well as most of the other tribes ; but the Seminoles, so gentle
imder the paternal care of the Franciscans, had become ungovern-
able when their uncultivated nature was no longer under the
check of religion. The Florida war, which cost the United States
twenty thousand men and forty million dollars, and lasted from
1835 to 1842, produced no result. The Seminoles do not num-
ber over a thousand, yet diplomacy and force, promises and
threats, alike fail to draw them from their native land. Their chief-
tain, Billy Bowlegs, is the terror of the frontier, and the Ameri-
can people held in check by a handful of Indians will thus long
atone for the iniquity of their fathers. But the restoration of the
Catholic missions, which began with the peace of Europe in 1814,
and to the success of which the Association for the Propagation of
the Faith has so powerfully contributed, has been felt in Florida
as in the rest of the world. The Bishop of Mobile is a native of
France, and the mission of St. Augustine is in the hands of the
Fathers of Mercy, of whom Father Rauzan was the venerable
founder.

California, which now forms the ecclesiastical province of San
Francisco, was also evangelized in the time of the Spaniards : the
flourishing missions of the Jesuits in the peninsula of California
do not, however, fall within our limits, as they existed on a terri-
tory still subject to Mexico.

Upper California, conquered by the United States in 1845, wat

IN THE UNITED STATES.

visited by the Franciscans in 1768 ; and from that dftte down to
1822 they founded along the coast twenty-one missions, the chief
of which Avere San Diego, Monterey, and San Francisco. In
these missions the Fathers directed seventy-five thousand con-
verted Indians, providing for their clothing, food, and instruction.
But in 1825, in consequence of the revolution by which Mexico
was severed from the mother country, the Spanish missionaries
were diiven from California, and the Catholic Indians were de-
pnved of most of their pastors.

The same result took place in Texas, where the Franciscans
announced the Gospel at the close of the seventeenth century, and
where their noble foundations, the missions of San Antonio, San
Francisco, and a host of others, among the Adayes, the Cenis, the
Tejas, the Aes, after having been levelled by wars and revolutions,
and watered with the blood of martyrs down to the present cen-
tury, have begun to revive since the erection of Texas into a Vica-
riate Apostolic in 1842, and the subsequent establishment of the
Episcopal See of Galveston, over which the Rt. Rev. Dr. Odin
presides.

Such is a rapid sketch of the former missions in the countries
subject to the Spanish crown. The southern part of the United
States was the theatre of these holy attempts ; and we must now
pass to the North to describe those to which the Jesuits and
Recollects of France devoted their lives with such heroic zeal.
Canada had been known since the reign of Francis I., and at-
tempts at colonization had been made under Henry III. ; but it
was only under Henry IV. that permanent settlements were
formed in North America, at Quebec and Port Royal. Then the
ladies of the Court, encouraged by Father Coton, became mer-
chants and ship-owners in order to enable the missionaries se-
lected to reach those distant shores. The Marchioness de
Guercheville, who had declared herself protectress of the Indiana
of New France, devoted her fortune to the work of colonization ;

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

and two Jesuits, after a short stay in Acadia, whence t\iey were
driven by persecution, founded in 1612 the Mission of St. Saviour,
on Mount Desert Island, off the coast of Maine, and in the present
diocese of Portland. Thus at the North, no less than at the
South, Catholicity had taken possession of the American soil be-
fore the Puritans had given Protestantism a home at Boston.
England then possessed only a few scattered houses in Virginia,
whose inmates sent a fleet of fishing craft each year to Newfound-
laud. As this fleet, escorted by the infamous Argal, approached
St. Saviour's and heard of its existence, they resolved lo attack
the settlement. One of the missionaries was mortally wounded
by the invaders, his companions carried off as prisoners, and the
seeds of the faith which Father Biard had planted in the hearts
of the Indians were to germ only in happier times.

This harvest waited till .1646. At that time a converted Al-
gonquin from Canada having visited the Abenakis, a tribe occu-
pying the present State of Maine, these latter suddenly found
themselves touched by grace, and a deputation of their principal
chiefs set out for Quebec to beg most earnestly for a Blackgown.
Father Druillettes was sent to them, and his labors, followed by
those of the two Bigots, La Chasse, Loyard, Sirenne, and Aubry,
of the Society of Jesus, and Thury and Gaulin, of the Seminary
of Quebec, effected the conversion of the powerful tribe of the
Abenakis, or Taranteens, as the early English settlers called them.
The mission long maintained its zeal and fervor, and the Indians
on all occasions acted as brave and faithful allies of France. But
when Acadia was lost, the English in Massachusetts pursued with
cruel vengeance the red man's attachment to Catholicity and
France. Expedition after expedition spread fire and death through
the villages of the Abenakis ; the missionaries were driven out or
slain, the churches destroyed, and the Indians deprived of all the
consolations of the faith. Yet they had been too well grounded
in Catholicity to waver : they remained true to the faith, and

t^^t^

IN THE UNITED STATES.

hem.

dians
But
•with
and

ough

ut or
Ithe
nded
and

joining tlio Americans in their rcvokitiou, immediately petitioned
for a French priest. Down to our day they have resisted the
preachers of Protestantism, and the remnants of this powerful
tribe, who still occupy five villages in Canada and Maine, are all
Catholics, as their forefathers have been for two centuries.

After Maine, the country now embraced in the State of New
York was first visited by our missionaries. This territory was in-
habited by the celebrated confederation of the Five Nations or
Iroquois, who waged a perpetual war with the Hurons of Canada.
The Hurons, many of whom had embraced the true faith, beheld
the inveterate hatred of their enemies redoubled; and after a
struggle of twenty-five yeare, from 1625 to 1650, after cutting off
nine Jesuits, the Iroquois could boast of having destroyed tho
Hurons. Father Jogues, taken captive by the Mohawks and led
to their castles, was tho first missionary who bore tho Gospel to
the State of New York, then a Dutch colony. After remaining
a prisoner for fifteen months, subjected to the most cruel torture,
Father Jogues was delivered by the Dutch, and sent home to
France. But the mutilated hero at once asked to be sent back to
his Indians, and had no sooner entered their castles, in 1646, than
he was cut down by a tomahawk. Such a fate could not, how-
ever, dismay the associates of Jogues, and soon after, Father Le
Moine, in his turn, braved the cruelty of the Five Nations. After
many vicissitudes, after trials of every kind, the Jesuits at last
touched the breast of the Iroquois, and founded a church glorious
in the annals of Christianity, — a church with its apostles, its mar-
tyrs, its holy virgins, — a church which even in our day has been
the instioiment of converting the distant tribes of Oregon. All
these wonders were achieved in the short period of eighteen years,
for after that the English succeeded in exciting the pagan Indians
against the missionaries, whom they expelled from the cantons of
the Iroquois. Fortunately, however, the Catholic Indians had
already begun to emigrate to the Catholic colony of Canada.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

1 i

■''i i

I j

The mission at Caiighnawaga, on the Mohawk, had been the
most flourishing of all ; and this was not surprising : it occupied
the spot which had been bedewed with the blood of Father Jogues
and his companions, Goupil and Lalande. Harassed in the
practice of their religion, the Catholics of Caughnawaga, led by
their great chieftain, resolved to emigrate to Canada, and these
pilgrims for the faith founded near Montreal a new Caughnawaga,
which still exists. The once powerful league of the Iroquois has
disappeared from the teri-itory of New York. Protestant civiliza-
tion destroyed or expelled them, to seize their forests and hunting
grounds. But the descendants of the pilgrims of 1672 have pre-
served in Canada their nationality and their faith, under the pro-
tecting shadow of the Cross. Three Iroquois villages exist in that
colony, one containing about two thousand souls, and furnish
striking proof of the solicitude of the Church for the salvation of
the human race.

Other parts in the interior of the United States, west of the
English colonies, on the shores of the Atlantic, were in like man-
ner visited by missionaries from France, and the first nucleus of a
settlement in many States, as Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan,
Wisconsin, gathered arouud the humble chapel of the Jesuit mis-
sionary.

Protestant writers have done justice to the wonderful fecundity
of a religion which covered a whole continent with its missiona-
ries ; and Bancroft, after giving a magnificent picture of the labors
of the Jesuits, whose early exploration of the wilderness, even in
a scientific and commercial view, must win the admiration of all,
adds : " Thus did the religious zeal of the French bear the Cross
to the banks of the St. Mary and the confines of Lake Superior,
and look wistfully towards the homes of the Sioux in the valley
of the Mississippi, five years before the New England Eliot had
addressed the tribe of Indians that dwelt within six miles of
Boston harbor."

IN THE UNITED STATES.

mis-

Eliot was a Protestant minister, almost the only one wlio de-
voted himself to evangelize the Indians of New England, and from
the lips of the American author, this contrast between the wide-
spread missions of the Jesuits in 1640, and the labors of Eliot
near Boston, is a striking homage to Catholicity. In 1061 Father
M6nard projected a mission among the Sioux, west of Lake Su-
perior, but perished amid the forests in what is now the Vicariate
Apostolic of Upper Michigan. Father Allouez soon took up the
labors of Menard, and all the country around the great lakes,
Huron, Michigan, and Superior, echoed to the preaching of the
Jesuits. Sault St. Mary's, Mackinaw, and Green Bay were the
centres of these missions, which still subsist, and the traveller who
stops at one of the rising towns of the northern Mississippi, will
hear the priest address his congregation alternately in French,
English, and some Indian dialect.

Scarcely were the Jesuits thus established in the country of the
great lakes, when they resolved to evangelize the whole valley of
the Mississippi. Father Marquette planted the Cross amid the
Illinois, after having had in 1673 the glory of discovering and
exploring the Mississippi. For two months he sailed down the
river in his bark canoe, and the narrative of his extraordinaiy
voyage, revealing to the world the fact that the St. Lawrence
could communicate with the Gulf of Mexico, by an almost unin-
terrupted chain of lakes, rivers, and streams, gave France the first
idea of colonizing Louisiana. The Mississippi valley soon beheld
missions rise among the Illinois, Miamis, Yazoos, Arkansas, Nat-
chez, and other tribes. Jesuits, Recollects, and Priests of the
Foreign Missions, here shared the rude toil of converting the In-
dians, and the French missions of North America thus mingle
and blend with those of the Spaniards at the South. But after a
century of preaching, all these laborious toils are compromised by
the loss of Canada and the suppression of the Society of Jesus.
Many flocks were then deprived of pastors. Not only the Indian

TUB CATHOLIC oiiuiion

converts, but even the Froncli sottlors wcro left deatituto of priests,
abandoned to the seductions of error or the ravages of indift'er-
ence, till at last Providence used the dispersion of the French
clergy, in the Reign of Terror, to send to America missionaries,
and build up anew the church whose consoling progress wo have
undertaken to recount.

Ilaving thus glanced at tlie early Spanish and French missions,
we have now to chronicle the labors of the English Jesuits in
Maryland.*

h
I

CHAPTER II.

THE OOLONIAL CHURC/I.

JnUryland— Soltlwl by Catholics— Their persecution— Tholr omanciputlon— 1634-1774.

We have briefly sketched the early evangelical labors of the
Spanish and French missionaries on the domain which now con-
stitutes the United States. A third nation came in its turn to
contribute by its holy souls to the Apostolates of the American
continent, and the Jesuits of England share in the settlement of
Mar} land. The first English colonies in America each introduced
a new creed. In 1607 Captain John Smith and some Episcopa-
lians founded Virginia ; in 1620 the Separatists lanUud at Ply-
mouth, and laid the foundations of New England; in 1684 the
Quakers, under the patronage of William Penn, took possession
of Pennsylvania ; while ;n i i)34 the Catholics laid the comer-stone

* Much of the preceding wa>A d %-fi from a lecture o? Mr. John G. Shea
delivered in 1852, before the Cuiholo • r..£,i'iuto of New York, the basis of his
well-known and elaborate History of tb.". Catholic Miynioub among the Indian
tribee of the United States.

IN THE UNITED STATEB.

of the present State of Muryhvucl, which received it8 nam* from
Henriette Marie, the unfortunate queen, daughter of Ihtin Quatre
and wife of Charles I.* But that land had been already bedewed
vith martyr blood, iw though Providence had ordained that it
should be stamnr-d wiili the seal of the true faith before any
Protestant s^'.ct had Ir.usplanted its errors there. As early as
1570 the Je-nif • who were laboring on the missions in Florida,
turned 'li'iir atteLtion to a country far to the north of them, at
tlie ;iVth degree of north latitude, and known to the natives by
the name of Axacun. The Spanish navigators who had first ex-
plored the coast, had brought away the son of a cacique, who was
adopted by the missionaries as a future means of enabling the
Gospel to penetrate to his tribe.

The young Indian, gifted with rare talents, soon seemed to
embrace the truths of the faith with ardor, and ere long, baptized
under the name of Don Luis de Velascos, Lord of Vasallos, ho
offered to lead the Jesuits to the kingdom of Axacan. How
could the missionaiies resist the hope of converting a savage peo-
ple to the faith ?

Accordingly the offer of the young cacique was cheerfully ac-
cepted, and eight Jesuits, under the direction of Father Segura,
Vice-provincial of Florida, embarked in a small craft, which
landed them on the shores of Chesapeake Bay, then known to
the Spaniards by the name of St. Mary's. This bay now bathes
the shores of the States of Mar\ land and Virginia, and by a sin-
gular . ucidouce, the names of Virgin and Mary, given in mem-
ory of two queens, will ever l>e a memorial of its earlier consecra-
tion to Mary, the Mother of <i}od.

The missionaries landed, accompanied by some Indian boys,
who had been educated in their achool in Havana. They pene-

Shea^

of hi*

llndina

* Philarete Chasles, iu his " Essay on the Anglo-Americans," says that
Maryland was so called in honor of Mary Tudor. Thin ia an error : Queen
Mary had been dead sixty-six years before the grant to Lord Baltimore.

1i'

'^li

I, !

' i^ ,

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

trated into the interior, guided by Vasallos, and after a painful
march of several months, they approached the realm of Axacan.
At last their guide started on, in order, as he said, to prepare his
tribe to receive the missionaries. But after forsaking the Jesuits
amid the trackless forests, where they endured all the horrors of
famine, the traitor returned at the head of a party of armed men,
and butchered his benefactors at the foot of a rustic altar, where
they had daily offered the holy sacrifice for the salvation of his
tribe. The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians, and such
is the first triumph of the faith on the banks of the Chesapeake.*

After Father Segura, Father White is the first who came to
labor for the conversion of these native tribes. Sir George Cal-
vert was in 1624 a member of the privy council of James I.,
when the sight of the persecutions employed against the Catho-
lics touched the loyal and religious heart of the English lord. He
abjured Anglicanism, and, informing his sovereign of the step, re-
signed all his posts. James resolved to retain the services of so
conscientious a man. He made him a peer of Ireland, with the
title of Lord Baltimore, and granted him a considerable portion
of JSTewfoundland, which he encouraged him to settle. Calvert
devoted a part of his fortune to fruitless attempts on that island.
He then directed his attention to Virginia, where a more genial
climate gave him hopes of a prosperous settlement.

But sailing there, he was called upon to take the test oath of
the supremacy of the king in matters of faith, and he left the
country rather than betray his conscience. Then it was that Lord
Baltimore solicited a charter which would permit the Catholics
to practise their worship undisturbed in one spot on the shores of
America. His request was granted, and Maryland was ceded to
him, subject only to the yearly homage of two Indian arrows and
the payment into the royal exchequer of onu fifth of the gold

* Shea's Lecture,

IN THE UNITED STATES.

and silver drawn from the mines. Lord Baltimore died in 1632,
at the very moment when tliis charter was issuing. His eldest
Bon, Cecil Calvert, inlierited his rights, but he had not the energy
to direct the expedition in person, and to Leonard Calvert, second
son of Lord George, is due the honor of having founded Maryland.

On the 25th of March, 1634, two hundred English families,
chiefly Catholic, flying from the persecution of the mother coun-
try, entered the Potomac in two little vessels, the Ark and Dove.
It Avas Lady-day, and the settlers wished to celebrate it duly by
hearing Mass. They accordingly landed, and Father White, in
his relation of the voyage, thus gives an account of the ceremony :*

" On the day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
we oflfered for the first time in this region of the world the sacri-
fice of the Mass. The sacrifice being ended, we took on our
shoulders a huge cross which we had hewn from a tree, and car-
ried it in procession to a place marked out for it, the governor,
commissioners, and other Catholics bearing a part in the cere-
mony. We raised it a trophy to Christ the Saviour, humbly
chanting on bended knees and with deep emotion the Litany of
the Cross."

Father White was born at London about 15 "7 9, and received
his education in the College of Douay, founded in 1568 by the
celebrated Cardinal Allen in order to train up priests for the Eng-
lish mission. At the age of twenty-five he received orders, and
was immediately sent to London to exercise the ministry there in
secrecy, as the penal laws then required. He could not, however,
escape the keen search of the pursuivants. In 1602 we find him
included with forty-six other priests in a sentence of perpetual
banishment. Forced thus to return to the continent. Father
White resolved to enter the Society of Jesus, and after making a

* " Rolatio Itineris," by Father Andrew White, copied at Rome by Father
M'Sherry, S. J., and published in Force's Tracts, and in part in Burnap's
Life of Calvert, p. 58

i i

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

novitiate of two years at Louvain, obtained permission to return
to England. Amid tlie most heroic labors of that illustrious or-
der, we may cite the unwearied devotion of the English Jesuits in
favor of their persecuted countrymen. For two centuries they
devoted themselves to the perilous labors of the holy ministry in
England, braving chains and death ; while, at the same time, by
opening colleges in different parts of Europe, they baffled the
rigors of Protestant legislation, which had pitilessly closed every
source of Catholic education in the three kingdoms.

The English Jesuits had in 1590 obtained of the liberality of
Philip II. of Spain the foundation of a college at St. Omer's, and
Bome years later they opened the college of Liege in the domains
of the Elector of Bavaria. At the same time, they established in
Spain for English postulants the Novitiate of Valladolid and the
Scholasticate of St. Ermenegild near Seville. To this latter house
Father White was sent, after having spent ten years on the Lon-
don mission. The quiet duties of a professor's chair did not,
however, satisfy his ardent zeal, and he soon obtained permission
to return for the third time to England. Lord Baltimore no
sooner knew him than he determined, if possible, to intrust him
with the spiritual care of his Maryland settlers. The Society of
Jesus eagerly seconded the pious views of the English nobleman ;
nor, indeed, could it refuse to concur in a work which promised
such an extension to the bounds of the Church. To Father
White were associated Father John Altham, known on the mis-
sion by the name of Grovener,* and two lay ])rotliers. Scarcely
had they landed on the shores of the Potomac when the com-

* Cretineau Joly, in liis Histoire de la Compagnie de Jesus, supposes a
Father Altham and a Fatlier Grovcner (iii. 350), but from an article of tho
late B, U. Campbell, Esq., in the Catholic Almanac for 1841, it is clear that
under the two names we must reckon only one Jesuit. The missionaries of
that time, in order to elude the persecution of Anglicans, often took succes-
sively several names as several disguises. This was necessary to preservo
to the Catholics of England the services of their Fathers and pastors.

.!■ 'i'

i'll

IN THE UNITED STATES.

return
LIS or-
uits in
s they
5try in
ne, by
3d the
every

ahty of
•'s, and
omains
shed in
md the
r house
tie Lon-
lid not,
■mission
lore no
ust him
ciety of
)leman ;
omised
Father
e mis-
carcely
e com-

jposes a
le of tlio
[lear that
Inaries of
siicces-
Iprcscrvo

panions of Leonard Calvert founded the httle town of St. Mary's ;
and the largest cabin of an Indian tribe, ceded to the missiona-
ries, became the first chapel of Maryland.

The Fathers at once divided their time between the European
colonists and the Indian tnbes whose eyes they had vowed to
open to the light of the Gospel. The former constituted a con-
gregation remarkable for their piety and morality, so that many of
the Protestants who landed in 1634 and 1G38 became Catholics.
"The Relation" of 1638, addressed to the General at Rome, con-
tains these words :

" The religious exercises are followed with exactness, and the
sacraments are well frequented. By the spiritual exercises we have
formed the principal inhabitants to the practice of piety, and they
have derived signal benefits from them. The sick and dying, whoso
number has been considerable this year, have all been attended, in
spite of the great distance of their dwellings, so that not a Cathoho
died without having received the benefit of the sacraments."

On his side Father AVhite, notwithstanding his advanced age
(he was then fifty-five), took upon him the hard task of learning
the language of the Indians. From the first the welcome of the
natives had been cordial. In his intercourse with them Leonard
Calvert had always shown the greatest loyalty, and the Maryland
historian* says on this subject :

" During the remainder of the year, while the English and In-
dians lived together in St. Mary's, according to their stipulation,
the utmost harmony appears to have prevailed among them. The
natives went every day to hunt Avitli the ' new-comers' for deer
and turkeys, which, when they had caught, being more CNpcrt at
it, they either gave to the English or sold for knives, beads, and
Buch trifles. They also supplied them with fish in plenty. As a
certain mark of the entire confidence which these unsuspecting

* Bozmau's Maryland, ii. 31.

I I

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

people placed in the colonists, tlieir women and children became,
in some measui'e, domesticated in the English families"

The gentle and even innocent life of the Indians disposed them
favorably to receive the Gospel. Father "White accordingly, on
his first visit to the Patnxents, made some converts. In 1639
Father Brock, just arrived from England, resided amidst them on
a strip of laud given him by King Mackaquomen, and Father
Althani was stationed on Kent Island. In the ardor of his char-
ity. Father Brock, in 1641, Avrote :

" For my own part, I would rather, laboring in the conversion
of these Indians, expire on the bare ground, deprived of all hu-
man succor, and perishing Avith hunger, than once think of aban-
doning this holy work of God from the fear of want."

These noble words were his testament, and a few weeks later
Father Brock breathed his last, exhausted by hardship and priva-
tions.

Father AVhite had in 1639 taken up his station among the
riscataways, who resided near the present city of Washington ;
and ere long he had the consolation of baptizing King Chiloma-
con, his family, and a pnrrt of his tribe. The young queen of the
Potopacos, and the chief men of the tribe, followed this example,
so that the neophytes numbered one hundred and thirty. The
settlers at St. Mary's had meanwhile built a suitable church, in
which one of the Fathers ministered. The missionaries, entirely
devoted to their religious duties, constantly refused to take any
part in the political organization of the colony, and as they had
been invited to sit in the first legislature of Maryland, " desired to
be excused from giving voices in this assembly."* Such is the
striking testimony given by a Protestant author, little as it may
tally with the heated accusations of the many writers who inces-
santly complain of Jesuit ambition.

* Bozman's Maryland, vol. i. p. 83. The precise terms of the minutes of
the Assembly, Jan. 25, 1637, preserved in the archives at Annapolis.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

ecame,

1 tliem
gV» on
I 1639
lem on
Father
is char-

wersion

all hu-

Df aban-

ks later
d priva-

ong the
lington ;
Ihiloma-
n of the
ixample,
:y. The
urch, in
entirely
^ako any
,hey had
lesired to
ih is the
IS it may
0 inces-

linutea of
Ills.

This resolution not to iuterfere in politics made them heli)less
to stem the religious persecution which was soon to drive them
from the arena of their religious labors. Misled by an idea more
generous than prudent, Lord Baltimore had openly proclaimed
the liberty of Christian worship in his domain of Maryland ; and
this first example of toleration, " at a time Avhen, in fact, tolera-
tion was not considered in any part of the Protestant w^orld to be
due to Roman Catholics,"* when, in fact, every Protestant gov-
ernment in Europe, and even the other English colonies in Amer-
ica, exercised the most inhuman intolerance on the Catholics, has
been extolled with enthusiasm by American authors :

"Upon the 2'7th day of March, 1C34," says Bancroft, "the
Catholics took quiet possession of the little place, and religious
liberty obtained a home, its only home in the wide world, at the
humble village which bore the name of St. Mary's."j

McMahon, the historian of Maryland, also says :

" Yet, while we would avoid all invidious contrasts, and forget
the stern spirit of the Puritan, which so frequently mistook reli-
gious intolerance for holy zeal, we can turn with exultation to the
Pilgrims of Maryland as the founders of religious liberty in the
New World. They erected the first altar to it on this continent,
and the fires first kindled on it ascended to heaven amid the
blessings of the savage."^

This toleration was, however, only partial ; for to gain entrance
to Lord Baltimore's vast domains it was necessaiy to believe in
the divinity of Christ. But if, even with this restriction, the con-
duct of the founders of Maryland is the object of so much eulogy
in America, we must claim our right to hesitate in joining in it.
That the partisans of free examination should refuse to hinder the
introduction of a new worship is a necessary consequence of their

* Rev. Dr. liaird, in his " KcliKloii in Aiiuirica," p. G2.
t J^ancroft'is History oftlic United States, i. 217.
X McMalion's Marjland, 1 OS— note.

i31tUothcst'

;•>< " ■ '

iKaM'**.--^^

tvfJON'l K'.V^*^

THE CATHOLIC CIIURCn

ii ,,l

■V} I

111" I

il I

principles. But \\\wn a Stiilo lias the happiness of possessing
unity of religion, and that religion the truth, wo cannot conceive
how the government can facilitate the division of creeds. Lord
Baltimore had seen too well how the English Catholics were
crushed by the Protestants, as soon as they were tlie strongest
and most numerous ; he should then have foreseen that it would
be so in JNfaryland, so that the English Catholics, instead of lind-
ing liberty in America, only changed their bondage. Instead,
then, of admiring the liberality of Lord Baltimore, we prefer to
believe that lie obtained his charter from Charles L, only on the
formal condition of admitting Protestants on an equal footing
with Catholics.

The Jesuits, devoting themselves, as we have seen, to the salva-
tion of the red men, as well a<* of the colonists, were not unaided in
their work of love. In 1G43 two Capuchin Fathers, sent out on
the recommendation of the Congregation " de propaganda fide,"
arrived to join the devoted followers of St. Ignatius.""*

Ten years had scarcely elapsed after the landing of Leonard
Calvert when the Protestants of Maryland were already in open
insurrection against the Catholics and their governor. The Jesu-

* This fact is mentioned by Ilenrion in liis History of Catholic Missions,
i. 035, on the authority of tho " Present State of the Ciinrch in all parts of
"the World, by Urban Cerri," pai^c 282. After an account of the Jesuit mis-
sion, this author states at tho same time the General of the Capuchins, ou
the recommendation of the Congregation " de propaganda fide," sent several
French and English Capuchins to Virginia, under which name the Italian
author includes all the English colonics in North America. Ho adds, too,
that the mission was restored in 1G50, at tho request of the queen dowager
of Kngland, but that it was subsequently abamloned."

Tlio Narrative of Father White, ])ublished by Force in his Historical
Tracts, iv. 47, says, under the date of lti43, "Two Fathers of tho order of
St. Francis, sent from Kngland the year before, have entered into a portion
of the labors and luirvcst, between whom and us offices of kindness arc mu-
tually observed for the common prosperity of the Catholic cause."

Hennepin, tho Flemish Keoollect, twice in his " New iJiscovcry" (Edn.
]fi9S\ at pages 59 and 281, alludes to the labors of English Franciscans in
lilaryland.

o;
ai
te

IN THE UNITED STATES.

its were seized and sent oft', loaded with irons, to England, whera
they were confined in prisons for several years. In 1G48 Father
Fisher succeeded in returning to Maryland, and immediately on
his return wrote to Rome —

"By the singular providence ol' Ciod, I found my flock collected
together, after they had been scattered for three long years ; and
tliey were really in more flourishing circumstances than those
who had oppressed and plundered them ; with what joy they re-
ceived mo, and with what delight I met them, it would be impos-
sible to describe, but they received me t\s an angel of God. I
have now been with them a fortnight, and am preparing for the
painful separation ; for the Indians sunuuon me to their aid, and
they have been ill-treated by the enemy since I was torn from
tliem. I hardly know what to do, but I cannot attend to all.
God grant that I may do his will for the greater glory of his
name. Truly flowers appear in our land : may they attain to
fruit."*

Father Andrew White, despite his earnest desire, liad not the
hapi)iness of returning to America. After nuiny years' confine-
ment he was banished from England, but by his Superior's orders
at once returned again, braving the rigor of the penal laws against
missionaries. He devoted the closing years of his life to the same
ministry in which lie had spent his youth, and the Apostle of
Maryland died at Loudon in 1G57, one of the holiest members of
an order which lias produced so many saints.

Meanwhile his fellow religious maintained their ground in
America, amid the constant disorders in which the colony lan-
guished, and for more than a century the English Jesuits, in un-
interrupted succession, kept alive the faith of the settlers amid

(Edn.
'iins in

* Letter eited by the, late B. U. Ciimiibe.ll, Esq., in his " Historical Sketch
ot'tlie Early (,'lirlstitin Missions ainoncr tlio Indians of Maryland," from which
and from whoso " Life of Archbishop Carroll" we derive much of these chap-
ters, as will 1)0 evident to all American readers.

l\ 1

ii P.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

I ii;

i^l

j :

: •!!'

the persecutions of which they were the victims, ami of which we
cannot omit some account.

The Catholics had ah-cady been persecuted, but they did not
learn to persecute. Composing a majority in the Assembly of
1649, they passed the famous "Act concerning religion," which
provided that "no ])erson whatsoever, professing to believe in
Jesus Christ, shall be molested for or in respect of his or her re-
ligion, or the free exercise thereof."* Yet their conduct was
scorned, their example not followed.

In 1664 the Provincial Assembly deprived Catholics of their
civil rights, and decreed that liberty of conscience should not ex-
tend to "popery, prelacy, or licentiousness of opinion," an act
which has drawn from the historian Bancroft this reflection: "The
Puritans had neither the gTatitude to respect the rights of the
government, by which they had been received and fostered, nor
magnanimity to continue the toleration to which alone they were
indebted for their residence in the colony ."f

In 1692 the Assembly established the Anglican Church
throughout the colony of Maryland, dividing the counties into
parishes, and imposing a tax on citizens of every denomination
for the support of the Protestant clerg)\ While the Catholics
were masters of the government, they liad made no such exaction
for the supix)rt of their missionaries. Tlie Jesuits received con-
cessions of land on the same terms as other colonists, but all was
voluntary in the offerings of the faithful ; and now Catholics were
compelled to pay for the support of a creed which persecuted
them.

In 1 704 a new law, entitled " An act to prevent the increase of
Popery in the Province," prohibited all bishops and priests fi'om
saying Mass, exercising the spiritual functions of their ministry,
or endeavoring to gain converts ; it also forbid Catholics to teach,

* See this elaborately proved iu Davia's Day-star. Scribuer, 1856.
t Bancroft, i. 2()1.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

niul enabled a Catholic cliikl, by becoming a Protestant, to exact
from its Catholic parents its pro[)ortion of his property, as though
they were dead. Catholics were, however, permitted to hear
Mass in their own families and on their own grounds, and only
by this exception couhl tlie Catholic wursliip be practised in Ala-
ryhmd for seventy years.

The property of the Jesuits rested on the compact between
Lord Baltimore and the colonists, entitled " Conditions of Planta-
tion," by which every colonist settling with live able-bodied labor-
ers was entitled to two thousand acres of land at a moderate rate.
Moreover, the Indian kings whom they had converted, had mado
gratuitous concessions of land to the Church.

According to the law, the Jesuits could exercise the ministry
only in their own house and for their own servants ; and the size
of the chapels corresponded to this ostensible design, and they
were always connected with the house. Of coui'se, however, the
Catholics eluded the letter of the law, and these houses became
the sole refuge of religion in Maryland.

In 1*706 an act authorized the meetings of the Quakers, so that
in a colony founded by Catholics, Catholics were the only victims
of the intolerance of the dominant party. During the following
years successive laws deprived them of the elective franchise, un-
less they took the tost oath and renounced their faith. The
e'-ecutivo power, too, often arbitrarily issued proclamations, by its
own authority, " to take children from the pernicious influence of
Catholic parents," and. the Assembly voted that Papists should
pay double the tax levied on Protestants. The animosity against
Catholics at last became such that they were forbidden to ap})car
in certain parts of the towns, and they were in a manner shut up
in a sort of Ghetto.

Many of the Catholics now sought to escape this oppression,

and Daniel Carroll, father of the future Bishop of Baltimore,

sailed to France in 1752 to nesrotiate for the emignation of all the

0-*

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

1.1

1
1

4'!

Maryland Cutliolics to Louisifina. For this purpose he had sev-
oral interviews uith tlie ministry of Louis XV., in order to con-
viiK'O them of the immense resources of the valley of the Missis-
sipj)! ; but the government which abandoned Canada to Knghmd,
and sold Louisiana to Spain, was not able to ap])reciate the foi'e-
cast of Carroll, and his otl'ers were rejected.

During all this period of oppression the Catholics of Maryland,
with rare exceptions, remained faithful to the Church, and as
their missionaries afforded them means of Catholic education,
many of the younger niembers, to pursue more extensive studies,
crossed the ocean. Many of both sexes in France and IV'lgium
entered religious orders ; some returning as Jesuit Fathers to re-
pay the care bestowed on themselves ; others, by their pi-ayers in
silent cloisters, obtaining graces and spiritual blessings for their
distant Maryland. Of the Jesuits who labored in AL-iryland prior
to the Revolution, a great many were natives of the jiroviuce, and
we find otliers on the mission in England.

The penal laws prevented any emigration of Catholics to Mary-
land, and indeed the only acciession to their numbers which the
faithful in Maryland received from abroad, was a number of
Acadians, who, after beholding the devastation of their happy
homes on the Bay of Fundy, were torn from their native shores in
1*755, and thrown destitute on the coast of the various colonies.
Those who were set ashore in Mfuyland seem to have been moio
hapj)y than most of their sutlering countrymen. Fur a considera-
ble period they enjoyed the presence of a piiest — the lu.'v. ]\Ir.
Leclerc — and raised a chuivh on a hill outside of ]'>altimore.
On the departure of this excellent man, who left them vestments
and altar plate, these Acadians had to rely on the occasional
visits of the Jesuit Fathers.*

Meanwhile the Anglican clergy in Maryland, fattening on their

* Robin, Noufeau Voyage, p. 98.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

tithes, lived in plenty and disorder amid their slaves, without in
the least troubling their minds about preaching to their flocks.
So notorious is this disorderly conduct of the colonial clergy, that
the Protestant Bishop of Maryland, a few years since, exclaimed :
" Often as I hoar and read authentic evidence of the character of
a largo proportion of the clergy in the province of Maryland, two
generations since, I am struck with wonder that God spared a
church so universally corrupt, and did not utterly remove its can-
dlestick out of its place."*

As a contrast, wo give the foUoAving address of the legislature
to the Governor of Maryland, on the 16th of March, 1G97 :

" On the complaint of a minister of the Church of England,
that the Popish priests in Charles county do, of their own accord,
in this violout and raging mortality in that county, make it their
bualue.~.3 tt go up and down the county to pei-sons' houses, when
dying and frantic, and endeavor to seduce au<l make proselytes of
them, and in such condition boldly presume to administer the
sacraments to them: We humbly entreat your excellency to
issue your proclamation to restrain and prohibit such their ex-
travagant and presumptuous behavior."!

Thus the wide difference between a ministry of truth and a
ministry of error, appeared in Maryland as elsewhere, the former
devoting life in the service of their neighbor, the latter only think-
ing of the enjoyments of life.

'J'his degradation of the Anglican clergy at last sapped all their
authority, and the feelings of the Protestants towards their Cath-
olic countrymen began gradually to change. "When discontent
with the mother country awakened ideas of an insurrection
throughout the colonics, it became important to conciliate the
Catholics ; and both parties, whigs and tories, vied with each

* Campbell's Life of Archbisliop Carroll— in U. S. Catholic Magazine,
iii. 99.
■j- Campbell, ed. iii. 40.

THE CATnor.IC CHURCH

1 1.

• ; '4

other in omancMpntinj; them. The convention in 1774 innde the
following np[K>al to tin; p(^)|ile :

"As onr opjKwition to tho settled plan of the Tlnti»li adminis-
tration to enslave America will l>e strengthened l»y n iniion of all
ranks of men within this province, we do most earnestly recom-
mend that all former ditVerences alK)ut reii^non or politics, and all
private animosities and qnarrels of every kind, from henceforth
cease, and be forever hm'ied in oblivion; and wo entreat, ww con-
jure every man by his duty to God, his country, and his jwsterity,
cordially to unite in defence of onr common ri<»htft and lil^erties."

The act emancii>ating tho Catholics of Maryland followed close
on this appeal ; but, as wo have seen, it was wrested from tho
party in power by the critical position of alfairs, and did not
spring from any noble motive. This should never l)e forgotten
Avhen Protestants boast of tho toleration which tliey allow tho
Church in the United States.*

I:" ^ '

I 1 ^^'

CHAPTER III.

THE CHURCH IN THE IlEPUBLIC.

Mwylond— Father John Carroll— IIow tlie United States granted liberty of consdeiice
to the Catbollos— Mission of Father Carroll to Canada.

The persecution of tho Catholics had ceased in Maryland with
the necessity of conciliating them in the struggle for indepen-
dence ; and the Declaration of Rights voted by that province in
1776, by article 33, gi'anted them full toleration and religious

* Cretineau Joly's account in his History of the Society of Jesus is quite
inaccurate. Ilenrion, "HiBtoire des Missions Catholiqnes," is more brier
and more exact.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

nth

\ten-

lous

luite
Viei

equality. At the moinont wlion (' itliolic.s tliuH obtaiiutd n tardy
ju8ti(io, there were in the wliole extent of Mary hind twenty .Je«uit«^
or rather ex-Jesuits, for the society had been suppresHcd Hoino
yenra before. IJut tlie Fathers continued to live, as far as possi-
ble, in the sanie way as thouijli their order subsisted in all its
peifection ; and as their Superior at the time of the suppression,
Father Lewis was at the same lime \'iear-/^eneral of the Vicar-
apostolic of the London District, which j^ave him authority over
all the Catholic clergy in the United States, the missionanes con
tinned to regard him as their head. They accordingly recognized
his nght to receive the revenues of the society's property and di-
vide it among the Fathers for their support.

The first etl'ect of the emancipation of the Catholics was the
erection of churches in the towns, whereas till then there had
only been chapels in the rural districts, on the plantations or farms
possessed by the Jesuits, 'i'hus, in 1774, lialtiniore was only a
station visited once a month by a Father from the farm at White
Marsh. Mass was said in a room in the presence of some forty
Catholics, mostly French people, who had been barbarously and
treacherously dragged oH' from Acadia or Nova Scotia in 175G.
The priest took with liim his vestments and altar plate, for the
city where nine councils have since been held, did not then pos-
sess even a chalice ! Father John Carroll was at this time on a
fiirm belonging to his family at Rock Creek, ten miles from the
present city of Washington. lie visited the Catholics for many
miles around, and as lie became the first liishop of Baltimore and
t)f the Union, we shall give a short sketch of his life.

John Carroll was born in 1735, at Upper Mai'lborough in Ma-
ryland. His father, Daniel Carroll, a native of Ireland, had pre-
ferred the confiscation of his property to a renunciation of his
faith. His mother, Eleanova Darnall, was the daughter of a lich
Maryland planter, who had secured her a viery careful education
in a French convent. She availed herself of it to direct in person

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

I
I

the tuition of her son till he had to go to college. The laws
strictly prohibited Catholics from having schools, but the Jesuits
had eluded this prohibition, and established a school at Bohemia
Manor. In this secluded house they received as many as forty
Bcholars at a time. Young Carroll attended this school for some
years, and m 1748 set out for PVance, in order to finish his studies
with the Fathers at St. Omers. There he resolved to enter a
society, so identified with the existence of Catholicity in Maryland,
and after long years of novitiate and study at Watten and Liege,
he was ordained in 1759 and took his last vows in 1771.

The following year. Father Carroll travelled over many parts of
Europe as tutor of the son of Lord Stourton ; and in 1773 re-
paired to Bruges, where the English Jesuits had gathered on the
confiscation of St. Omers and of Watten, by a decree of the Par-
liament of Paris, issued in August, 1762.

In this city the Bull reached him, Avhich, under the title of
" Dominus ac Redemptor," suppressed the Society of Jesus. He
then retired to England, where he became chaplain to Lord Arun-
del; but this Hfe did not suit his taste, and in 1774 he returned
to ilaryland to devote himself to the care of his Catholic country-
men.

Father John Carroll found the thirteen American colonies pre-
luding the energetic struggle which was to terminate in their in-
dependence. His livelitest sympathies were for the lievolutionary
c^iuse, for he saw that it had begun in Maiyland by the emanci-
pation of the Catholics, and there was ground for hope that the
other States would gradually follow the example.

It is generally believed that the United States as a governmenl
proclaimed liberty of worship from the time of the Confederation,
and that this fundamental principle is an integral part of tho
Constitution which binds the several States together. It was not
BO. Religious questions have at all times been considered as
questions of interior administration, falling within the jurisdiction

IN THE UNITED STATES.

of the several States, and the only mention made of religion in
the Constitution of the United States is the third section of Article
VI. : " No religious test shall ever be required as a quahfication
to any office or public trust under the United States ;" and one
of the amendments subsequently passed, which says, " Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or pro-
hibiting the free exercise thereof." As the historian of Maryland
justly observes, " It is possible that instances may occiu" where
this amendment to the Constitution may bo of some use ; but as
Congress seldom has occasion to legislate on subjects of religion,
the oppression of individuals in the enjoyment of their religious
as well as civil rights, is most generally to be apprehended from
the State governments."* And, in fact, the provisions of the
Constitution did not prevent tlie several States from passing laws
to establish or prohibit any religion, in their discretion. Still, as
we have said, the oiiginal thirteen States, one after another,
granted to the Catholics liberty of conscience, but many of them
long refused the Catholics civil and political rights. Thus, it is
only since 1806 that Catholics, to hold office in the State of New
York, have been dispensed with a solemn abjuration of all obe-
dience to a foreign ecclesiastical power. Down to January 1,1836,
to be an elector and eligible in the State of North Carolina, it was
necessary to swear to a belief in the truth of the Protestant reli-
gion. In New Jersey, a clause excluding Catholics from all offices
was abolished only in 1844. And even now, ei^^iity years after
the Declaration of Independence, the State of New Hampshire
still excludes Catholics fi'om every office, stubbornly resisting all
the petitions presented for a removal of this stigma from their
statute-book.

As to the States founded on territory ceded by France or Spain,
Buch as Louisiana, Florida, Michigan, Indiana, or severed from

* Bozmnn's Maryland, i. 291.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

P' il

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W'i i

ii^

I
■J

Mexico, like Texas and California, the Catholics, original proprie-
tors of the soil, obtained, by the act of cession, the free enjoyment
of their worship ; and there is on the side of Protestantism mere
justice, but no generosity, in keeping the faith of treaties.

Hear, too, how Bishop Carroll himself, soon after his elevation
to the Episcopacy, rendered, in 1790, an account of the motives
which had led to the liberty of conscience for the Catholics of
America :

" Having renounced subjection to England, the American
States found it necessary to form new constitutions for their future
government, and happily a free toleration of religions was made a
fundamental in all tfieir new constitutions, and in many of them
not only a toleration was decreed, but likewise a perfect equality
of civil rights to persons of every Christian profession. In some,
indeed, the yet unextinguished spirit of prejudice and intolerance
excluded Catholics from this equality.

" Many reasons concurred to produce this happy and just arti-
cle in the new constitutions. First, some of the leading charac-
ters in the direction of American councils were by principle averse
to all religious oppression, and having been much acquainted
■with the manners and doctrines of Roman Catholics, represented
strongly the injustice of excluding them from any civil right ;
secondly. Catholics concurred as generally, and with equal zeal,
in repelling that oppression which first produced the hostilities
with Great Britain, and it would have been impolitic, as well as
unjust, to deprive them of a common share of advantages pur-
chased with common danger and by united exertions ; thirdly,
the assistance, or at least the neutrality of Canada, was deemed
necessary to the success of the United States, and to give equal
rights to Roman Catholics might tend to dispose the Canadians
favorably towards the American cause ; lastly, France began to
show a disposition to befriend the United States, and it waa
conceived to be very impolitic to disgust that powerful king-

IN THE UNITED ST.yES.

dom by unjust severities against the religion wliicli it pro-
fessed."*

It was, then, political reasons which induced the States to grant
liberty of conscience to Catholics; and we cannot insist too
strongly on this point in face of the affirmations of European Pro-
testantism, which incessantly cites the example of the United
States to induce men to believe in its generosity to Catholics. It
gives us pleasure, too, to state that France exercised a twofold
influence in arresting the oppression of American Catholics : first,
by the desire which the States liad of conciliating Louis XVI. ;
and next, by their prudent resolve not to shock the religious feel-
ings of the French colonists in Canada. At the period of the
Declaration of Independence, in 1776, Canada had been but six-
teen years under the power of England, and as it had so long and
so patriotically resisted the English arms, the recollection of the
old regime would naturally be still fresh. It was so, indeed ; and
the United States, allies of France, would naturally expect aid
from Canada; but we cannot conceive why Louis XVI. made no
attempt to reconquer Canada for himself, for this would have
given France back a colony, and would have enabled her to ren-
der most efficient aid to the United States. The enterprise would
have been most easy, had France shown a more prudent or less
disinterested policy. The Canadians, placed between their French
brethren and their new masters, would not have hesitated to
throw oflf the English yoke ; while, solicited merely by revolted
colonies, whose old hatred against themselves and their faith they
knew too well, they refused to make common cause with the lat-
ter, and England found in the French and Catholic colony left
lier, a powerful bulwark against the United States.

* Life and Times of Archbishop Carroll, by ihe lute B. U. Campbell, Esq.
(U. S. Catholic Mufjjazinc, iv. 251).

Brent, in his Life, p. OS, cites n trnns^lation of a French translation, whilo
Mr. Campbell copied the archbishop's original letter.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

;i ' i'

" Nothino-," says a Canadian historian, " nothing could roase
the colonists from thoir indiflerence. The fact is, that the gov-
ernment of their sympathies was not to be found in America.
The mere sight of the white banner, with its fleurs-de-lys, would
have thrilled every fibre of those apparently apathetic hearts."*

The Catholics of Maryland had all resolutely embraced the
side of American independence. They had already gained liberty
of worship. They had sent to Congress two of their most emi-
nent men — Daniel Carroll, the elder brother of John, and Charles
Carroll, his cousin. They now looked forward to an aUiance with
Canada as a means of gaining to their Church a fair share in the
councils of the Union. An American army had already in 1775
tak(?n Montreal and besieged Quebec. Though repulsed at the
latter place, they kept possession of Montreal, always hoping that
their jirolonged presence would lead to a general revolt of the
Canadians against the English. To hasten this, Congi'ess dis-
patched to Canada Franklin, Charles Carroll and Chase, of Ma-
ryland, and invited Father John Carroll to join them, in the hopo
that he would exercise some iufluence over the Catholic clergy.

The delegates left New York on the 2d of April, 1776, but
with all their dispatch, reached Montreal only on the 29th. (Wo
incidentally mention the length of this journey, which we have
made between sunrise and sunset.) Franklin assembled the prin-
cipal colonists, while Father Carroll endeavored to enter into cor-
respondence with the clergy; but neither found his advances
welcomed as he had expected, and on the 13th of May they set
out together for New York. Franklin having fallen sick on the
way, his fellow-traveller nursed him with truo devotedness ; and
during this embassy, the priest and the philosopher contracted a
sincere friendship, as Ave find from the grateful letters of Frankhn:

* Ilistoire dii Canadn, par F. X. Gnrneau (Quebec, 1852), ii. 430. "Tho
English flag nor the American flag is the flag of 'ours,'" the Canadian*
would say, in their quaint but toucliing language.

i 'A

IN THE UNITED STATES.

" As to myself, T grew daily more feeble, and I think I could
hardly have got along so far, but for Mr. Carroll's friendly assist-
ance and tender care of me."*

We shall hereafter find Franklin not foi-getful of his kind in-
firmarian, when it was proposed to appoint a bishop for the
United States.

Congress had voted an address to the Canadians, which con-
tained these words : " We are too well acquainted with the liberty
of sentiment distinguishing your nation to imagine that difference
of religion will prejudice you against a hearty amity with us.
You know that the transcendent nature of freedom elevates those
who unite in her cause above all such low-minded infirmities.
The Swiss cantons furnish a memorable proof of this truth. Their
Union is composed of Roman Catholic and Protestant States,
living in the utmost concord and peace with one another, and
thereby enabled, ever since they bravely vindicated their freedom,
to defy and defeat every tyrant that has invaded them."f

These words, however, inspired the Canadians with little confi-
dence, when they saw the same Congi'ess address the people of
Great Britain in October, 1774, complaining that the Quebec Act
liad granted religious libei'ty in Canada :

*' Nor can we suppress our astonishment that a British Parlia-
ment should ever consent to establish in that country a religion
that has deluged your island in blood, and dispersed impiety,
bigotry, persecution, murder, and rebellion through every part of
the world."

On the conquest of Canada by England, the country was for
some years under the iron rule of martial law, and religion was
fettered in a thousand ways, while every favor Avas shown to in-
vading Protestantism. vVt the sight of the agitation in New

* Franklin's Works, viii. l.V}..

t" Address to the luliabitanls of the Province of Quebec," cited by
'■'ampbell.

;

i 1

i '

i !

li i

ill; 1 4

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

England, tlie home government felt tlie necessity of attaching
Canada by concessions, and the Quebec Act of 1774 restored to
the Canadians their French law, and redintegrated the Catholic
worship in all its lights. To the Americans and their friends in
England, this act was a plan to raise a Catholic army in Canada for
their subjugation ; their hostility to it was bitter, and necessarily
predisposed the Canadians against them. As Mr. Garneau says:
. " The language of Congress would have been fanatical, if thoso
who employed it had been serious. It was foolish and puerile in
the mouths of those who were about to invite the Canadians to
join their cause, in order side by side to give America her inde-
pendence. This avowal, then, as to the act of 1774, was incon-
siderate ; it did no good in England, and alienated Canada from
tlie cause of the confederates."*

In order to justify Father John Carroll's course at Montreal,
we must say that, as his historian very particularly insists, he
merely preached neutrality to the Canadians.f The Catholics of
Maryland, scarcely yet in possession of liberty of conscience, natu-
rally desired to have as friends their Canadian brethren in the
faith. They feared that if the Canadians took up arms against
the United States, the ftmaticism of the Protestants, just lulled for
a time, would awaken with new fury against them. Father Car-
roll's mission was therefore religious in its object. But it could
not be so regarded in Canada, and the loyal Breton bishop who
then occupied the See of Quebec, Mouseigneur Oliver Briand, for-
bid his clergy to have any intercourse with the ecclesiastic en-
voy of Congress, whom he nevertheless highly respected, and, as we
shall see, congratulated most warmly on his subsequent elevation
to the Episcopacy. In the extraordinary history of the Society of
Jesus, the case of this Jesuit, ambassador from a Congress of Re-
publican Protestants, is not the least remarkable episode ; and

* Ilistoire dii Canadii, ii. 422.

t Eio{,'rnphical Sketch of Archbishop Carroll, 40.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

Re-

and

while the democrats of every cUmo reproach the children of St.
Ignatius with being the tools of despotic power, they can offer
Father John CaiToll as a sincere patriot, a zealous partisan of lib-
erty, and one of the real founders of American independence.

Note.— In order to prove that Catholics in the United States owe the en-
joyment of civil and political rights to liappy circumstances, and not to the
generosity of the Federal Constitution, we liavc been at some pains to draw
up the following table, which gives the period when the several States ceased
to admit the exclusive eligibility of Protestants. Ti is work, never before
done, has co^t us some trouble ; but we deem it usclul, in order to expose
the fallacy of the wide-spread idea that the emancipation of Catholics is due
to the Congress of 1776. It will bo observed, too, that in several States a
man must believe either in God or in tlio Christian religion, or at least in a
future state of rewards and punishment, to be eligible to offleo. This is far
from that unbridled liberty which is supposed to reign throughout tlie States.
The article guaranteeing liberty of conscience is generally in these terms :
"The profession and free exercise of every religious creed and form of wor-
ship is and shall be permitted to all; but the liberty of conscience hereby
guaranteed shall not be extended to excuse acts of licentiousness or practices
dangerous to the peace and safety of the State."

In the following list, the States marked + were colonized by Franco or
Spain, and the free exercise of the Catiiolic religion is guaranteed by treaty.

United States — Founded 1776 — Constitution 1787. — The Declaration of
Independence in 1776, and the Articles of Confederation in 1778. The Con-
stitution of 1787 merely provides that no religious test shall be required from
any officer of the Federal Government, and the first amendment ratified in
17ltl says: "Congress shall pass no law concerning the establishment of a
religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Massachuseits — 1776 — Constitution 1779-80. — Liberty of conscience. The
Legislature may levy a tax to support the Protestant worship, whore not vol-
untarily given. Every one must, to hold office, abjure under oath all obodi-
ciico to a foreign ecclesiastical power. This oath was modified in 1821.

New Hampshire — 1776 — Constitution 1792. — Liberty of conscience. But
the ineligibility of Catholics, established prior to the devolution by theKoyal
Charter, has still tlie force of law.

Rhode Island— 1776— Charter 1663, and Constitution 1842, grant full lib-
erty of conscience without any test. Penal laws repealed 1778.

CoNNKCTicuT — 1776 — Couslitulioii 1818. — Liberty of conscience. No rc-
Btriction as to Catholics.

New Youk — 1776 — Constitution 1777. — Liberty of conscience. But for-
eigners, to be naturali/ed, must abjure all foreign allegiance, temporal and
spiritual. A test oath was also passed, and remained in force till 1806.

New Jersey— 1776— Constitution 1776. — Liberty of conscience. No Pro-
testant inhabitant shall be deprived of his civil and political rights. Tho
new Constitution in IPil suppressed this clause.

I -■ "

I t I

46 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Delaware— 1776~Conatitution 1T76 and 1831.— Liberty of conacicnce.
No teat.

rKNN8YLVANiA— 1776— Constitution 1790.— Liberty of conaciencc. No
ninn who believes in God and a future state of rewards and punishment
shull be excluded from olHee.

Mauyland— 1776 — Constitution 1776. — No test, except a declnrution of be-
lief in tlie Christian religion. Every one professing the Christian religion
shull be froc to practise it.

Virginia— 177G— Constitution 1776.— Liberty of conscience 1830. No test.

North Carolina— 1776— Constitution 1776.— Every man who shall deny
the existence of God, or the truths of the Protestant religion, or the divine
authority of the Old or New Testament, shall not hold any office in the
State. The Constitution of 1835 substituted Christian for Protestant.

South Carolina— 1776— Constitution 1790.— Free exercise of religion to
all mankind.

Georgia— 1776— Conatitution 1798.— Liberty of conscience. No person
blmil be molested in his civil rights purely for religious principle.

Vermont— 1791— Constitution 1793.— No test. Every sect laound to keep
the Sabbath and have some worship.

Tennessee — 1796 — Constitution 1796. — No man can hold office that denies
the existence of God or of a future state of rewards and punishment.

Kentucky — 1799 — Constitution 1799. — Liberty of conscience. No test.

Ohio — 1802 — Constitution 1802. — Liberty of conscience. No test.

+ Louisiana— 1812--Constitution 1812. — No article on religion. Clergymen
excluded from office.

•f- Indiana— 1816.

t Mississippi — 1817.

+ Illinois — 1818.

t Alabama— 1820.
Maine— 1820.

Missouri — 1821 — Constitution 1820.
Arkans^vs — 1836.
Michigan— 1836.

rLORiDA—1845— Constitution 1888.
Tr;xAS— 1845.

Iowa— 1846.
Wisconsin- 1848.
C ALIFORN lA — 1 849.

Liberty of conscience, Nc test.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

jiice.

No
laient

ifbe-
igion

I teat,
deny
ivine
a the

on to

lerson
keep
lenies
:bt.
;ymeu

CHAPTER IV.

THE CHURCH DURING THE REVOLUTION.
Father Carroll and Father Floquet— Father Carroll at Rock Creek.

We have thus traced to its close the embassy of Carroll to Can-
ada. One episode connected with it may not be uninteresting.
The Bishop of Quebec had, as we have seen, forbid his clergy to
have any intercourse with Father Carroll. One of the priests of
Montreal, for a supposed infringement of this order, was suspended
and summoned to Quebec. His letters to Monseigneur Briand
throw considerable light on the public feeling in Canada at the
time, and on the mission of Father Carroll.

Father Peter R. Floquet had been twice Superior of the Jesuits
in Canada. Although a native of France, he continued to reside
in Canada after the conquest, and offended the government by
speaking in favor of the American colonies.

" I was complaisant to the Americans out of human respect,"
says he, in a letter to the bishop on the 15th of June, 17*76 ; "if
I had been as violent against them as many others were, the
whole brunt of the storai would have fallen on my head, as I was
the only Jesuit at Montreal. I would have served as an example
to others, and perhaps have occasioned a persecution of my con-
freres in Pennsylvania and Maryland.

"After the flight of the king's generals, the Montreal deputies
promised the Americans a true or a false and deceptive neutrality.
I believed it true and to be kept. I kept it, and advised others to
do so ; this made me tolerant to both parties in the tribunal of
penance.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

:! ^

"The American Colonel llazon commanded fur some time at
Montreal, lie restored to mo the part of our house which Mr.
Afurray had turned into a prison. I enjoyed this favor, which I
liad not sought, and I thanked the author of it. Mr. llazen sent
mo a written invitation to dinner. I dined with him once, accom-
panied by an Irish royalist priest who lived with me, and who
had been previously intimate with Mr. and Mrs. Ilazcn.

"Towards the close of the winter, the Americans raised two
companies of Canadian militia, Lieber and Oliver. The new re-
cruits were on garrison duty at Montreal when the paschal season
opened. On being asked to hear their confessions, I consented to
receive them, if I could be assured that they would not go to be-
siege Quebec, and would merely do service peacefully at Montreal.
On Mr. Oliver's assuring me of this, I yielded. On Easter Tues-
day, after dinner, I began to hear the least bad, but was far from
approving them. Those who got leave to receive went among
the crowd to the parish church until Low Sunday inclusively.

" On Tuesday after Low Sunday, three tardy militia-men I'e-
ceived absolution from me, and presented themselves at the parish
church. They were publicly repulsed. I confessed and commu-
nicated them januis clausis.

" In truth, in conscience, and before God, am I an American, a
rebel, or have I been ? No, Monseigneur ! Last fall, when they
were assembling at Montreal the habitans of good will for an ex-
pedition which failed, no one received them better, confessed and
communicated more, than I did. I told those who consulted me
that they did well to volunteer for the king's service, and that
those who resisted the orders did wronij. I have never ceased
chanting the ' Domine Salvum' and the prayer for the king at
Benediction.

" A Father Carroll, a missionary from Maryland, having come
to Montreal with two deputies of Congi'ess, presented a letter of
introduction from Father Farmer, the first missionary at Philadel-

IN THE UNITED STATES.

an, a

hey

ex-

and

rl me

that

ased

ig at

phia. The Seminary saw this loiter, which contained nothing
umiKi). Still I (lid not answer it. Father Carroll did not lodge
with me, and dined with me but once, lie said Mass in cup
house, by M. Montgolfier's permission.

" I have said nothing, written nothing, done nothing for the
service of Congress or the United Colonics. I received nothing
from them hut our own house in a very dilapidated state."*

Both sought, with equal good faith, the advantage of religion;
but the maze of politics made it very difficult to see what was
most beneficial to the Church, either at the moment or in future.
The Bishop of Quebec had every reason to distrust a nation in
revolt, distinguished till then only for its hostility to Catholics.
Father Floquet had reason to fear that too avowed an opposition
to the Americans might draw dv/\vn a persecution on the mission-
aries in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Father John Carroll was
right in seeking to gain the neutrality of the Canadians. The
most curious part of the whole affair is, to see the American
colonel restoring to the Jesuits their house in Montreal, of which
the English governor had deprived them, and inviting the rever-
end fathers to dinner.

That the Bishop of Quebec had no motive but prudence, wo
shall see hereafter, when we speak of Father Carroll's elevation to
the episcopacy.

On his return from Canada, Father John Carroll (for we now

* Archives of the Archbishopric of Quehec. Of this clergyman, Mr. Nor-
Bcux, in his " Abrege Chronologique et historique des pretres qui ont des-
pervi le Cnnada," says : " Father Peter R. Floquet, a native of Chatillon in
Champagne, arrived at Quebec in 1740. After having been several times
Superior of the Jesuits, both at Montreal and at Quebec, ho was recalled to
Quebec in Jan. 1777. Having written a very touching submission to tho
bishop on the 29th of November, 1776, he was relieved from the interdict.
Having become blind in 1779, he died at his convent on the 18th of July,
1782, at tho age of seventy-seven." This writer is, however, too inaccurate
for us to rely entirely on his dates and fact;8.

THE CATHOLIC CHUUCH

I ti It

I':

i 1

'ii .

resume his history) took u}> his rcsidcnco with his mother at Rock
Creek, where he remained during the rest of the Kevohitiouary
War, making it the centre of a vast mission, to which he devoted
himself with zoah His mother's advanced ago made him loth to
leave her, and rather than bo separated from her, he gave uj) his
share in the distribution of the revenues of the Society of Jesus in
Maryland.

We have remarked that tlio Society of Jesus, notwithstanding
the bull of dissolution in 1773, had (continued to act in Maryland
under their constitutions. Father Lewis was then Superior, and re-
cognized as such ; but whether they were bound to obey his orders
as to residence, was an open question. Father Carroll thought
not. In 1779 he wrote : "I have care of a very large congrega-
tion— have often to ride twenty-five or tliirty miles to the sick ;
besides which, I go once a month between fifty and sixty miles to
another congregation in Virginia ; yet, because I live with my
mother, for whose sake alone I sacrificed the very best place in
England, and told Mr. Lewis that I did not choose to be subject
to be removed from place to place, now that we had no longer
the vow of obedience to entitle us to the merit of it, lie does not
choose to bear any part of my expenses. I do not mention thia
by way of complaint, as I am perfectly easy at present."*

In another letter, of February 20th, 1782, to his friend Father
Plowden, Father Carroll sets forth the difficulties which this pro-
longed subjection might create : " The clergymen here continue
to live in the old form ; it is the effect of habit, and if they could
promise themselves immortality, it would be well enough ; but I
regret that indolence prevents any form of administration being
adopted which might tend to secure posterity a succession of
Catholic clergymen, and secure to them a comfortable subsistence,
I said that the former system of administration, that is, ' every

* Cited by Campbell in hia Life of Archbishop Carroll,
Magazine, iii. 365.

U. S. Catholio

IN TIIK UNITED STATES.

•"atlier

IS pro-

ntiniie

could

l)Ut I

being

iion of

stence,

"' every

^atholio

tiling IxMiig in (ho powiT ot'n Suptifior,' coiitiiiuod ; Imt nil flioso
checks upon him, ho wisely provided by our former couBtitutioiis,
are at an end."*

The enemies of the Jesuits have often reproached them for not
dispersing and actually persecuting themselves, on learning the
lirief of Suppression. To believe these zealous defenders of the
rights of the Holy See, tidelity to the rule of St. Ignatius, -when
uo harm resulted to the Cniureh, was a contempt of the supremo
authority of the Sovereign Pontift'. To these severe foi'malists,
Father Carroll's conduct will seem a proof of orthodoxy ; and as
to the friends of the Society, they will readily admit thai the ab-
solute authority of a local Superior might lead to serious abuse,
when it was no longer controlled by tliat of the General and by
the guarantees with which the constitutions of the Society have
always invested each member.

The life of Father John Carroll has few traits of resemblance
with the portraits traced by some historians, and 'n fact, to suc-
ceed in writing any* thing correct as to the ' .ory of the Church
in the United States, we have been com]'<'U«.'<i to forgot what little
has been published in France on this score, and confine ourselves
to such materials as we could gather ul the United States; other-
wise we should merely be repeating a series of errors confidently
copied by one after another.f

* Id. 3()9.

t For example, Crctincaii Joly says : "At the moment wlioii the Society
was abolished by Clement XIV., some Jesuits abandoned Great Britain to
retire to North America, their native land, where there never had been any
priests but themselves. John Carroll was their leader. Eound to the Insti-
tute by the profession of the lour vows, Carroll soon won the esteem of that
immortal generation which was preparing in silence the freedom of the land.
He was the friend of Washington and Franklin, the counsel of that Carroll,
bis brother, who labored so efficaciously in forming the Constitution of the
United Stales. The learning and foresight of the Jesuit were appreciated
by the founders of American liberty. They invited him to sign the Act of
Confederation. Attached to the Protestant worship, tliey were about to
consecrate its triumph by law ; but Catholicity, in the person of the Fatheri*

I l( ;

I'i

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Even Baron Ilenrion states tliat the Maryland clergy, with the
consent of Congress, expressed to Pope Pius VI. their desire to
have a bishop in the United States,* and Rohrbacher makes Con-
gress urge tlie Pope to gratify their wishes.f Nothing can be
further from the real state of affairs. Tlie fact is, that when the
independence of the United States was accomplished, the ex-
Jesuits in Maryland wished to bo no longer dependent on a Vicar-
n})ostolic in England, in order to give no umbrage to the new

of the Society, appeared to them so tolerant and so well fitted for civilizing
the Indiana, that they could not refuse John Carroll the establishment of
the principle of religions independence. Carroll was admitted to discuss tho
basis of it with thein. He laid it down so clearly, that freedom of worship
lias never lieen infringed in the United States. The Americans bound them-
selves to maintain it; nor did they feel at liberty to betray their oath, even
when they saw the extension given by the missionaries to the Koman faith."
— IJistoire de la Compagnie do Jesus, 8d ed. vi. 276. This paragraph con-
tains almost as many errors as words. To make the Jesuits the only priests
in North America is strange indeed, when it is not trne even of Maryland.
Father Carroll came alone and brought none with him. He was not a per-
sonal friend of Washington — at least, we find no proof of his ever having
been intimate with him. In 1800, Carroll, then bishop of Baltimore, de-
livered a funeral oration on Washington, but nowhere alludes, as he would
naturally do, to any personal intimacy. His friendship with Franklin was
indeed real, but it is an error to make him a signer of the Articles of Con-
federation. Charles Carroll signed tlie Declaration of Independence, and
Daniel Carroll, a brother of the bishop, signed the Constitution of the United
States. Father Carroll could not have spoken before the Congress or the
Convention on the topic of religious freedom, for it was not raised, is not
guaranteed in the Constitution, and is only mentioned in the amendments
subsequently adopted, by which eacli State reserves to itself the right to
legislate on the point. This error is repeated in tho / - Ics de la Propaga-
tion do la Foi, vol. xxii. p. 305. What Mr. Cretincau doly means by saying
that Congress was about to consecrate by law the triumph of Protestantism,
it would be hard to say : the silence of the Constitution on the subject has
destroyed the preponderance of Protestantism. Congress took no steps
towards civilizing the Indians, and could not have made that a motive for
any step ; and as to the assertion that liberty of worship has never been in-
fringed in tiio United States, wo deny tho hardy assertion and appeal to
history.

* Ilistoire Generalc des Missions Catholiques, ii. 602, where ho makes
Carroll Vicar-general of the Vicar-apostolic of London.

•f liohrbacher, Histoire Uuiverselle de I'Eglise Catholique, xxvii. 279.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

ken m-
Ual to

amke»

political organization in America. They accordiegly addressed a
memorial to the Holy See on the 6th of November, 1*783, to co-
licit the nomination of a Superior in spiritualibus, to ho chosen
from among themselves. But far from asking the erection of a
See at Baltimore, the ^Maryland missionaries thought it not desira-
ble for the interests of the Church, and we may even say that
they dreaded the sending of a Vicar-apostolic.

In connection with this subject, it must not bo forgotten that
the Cardinal of York then exercised at Rome an often preponder-
ating influence in the choice of Vicars-apostolic for Eugland.
The high birth of the royal cardinal enabled him indeed to exer-
cise a great control in the religious affairs of the three kingdoms ;
and his hostility to the Society of Jesus, Avhich hud led him to
seize their house at Frascati the very day after their suppression,
was a secret to none. The Vicars-apostolic in England named
in such circumstances had frequent disputes Avith the ex-Jesuits in
England. Those in Maryland might reasonably fear that the arrival
of a prelate, a creature, in all probability, of the Cardinal of York,
would only bring trouble and confusion. Besides this, the po\'-
erty of their missions, and the petty number of American Catlio
lies, made them believe the faithful unable to support a bishop
with dignity. They wished first to recruit a more numerous
clergy, in order to provide the scattered Catholics with pastors,
now that their religious worsliip was no longer proscribed.

The number of Catholics in 1*783 might amount in Maryland
to sixteen thousand souls, chiefly farmers and planters in tlie
rural districts. In Pennsylvania there were about seven thousand,
and in the other States about fifteen hundred.* This computa-
tion did not include the French Canadians in the countjy on (ho
Ohio and Mississippi, which had been surrendered to the United
States by the treaiy of 1*783. The white inhabitants of tJiis tor-

* This is Bishop Carroll's calculation. See Biographical Sketch, p. 7o.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

ritory were all Catholics, and amounted probably to four thou-
sand ; but they were still under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of
Quebec,- and the Maryland missionaries had no connection with
them. The march of Rochambeau's army through several States,
where Mass had never before been said, brought to light Catho-
lics in many places where they were not known to exist ; and the
army chaplains were often surrounded by the descendants of
Irishmen or Acadians, who now saw a priest for the first lime,
and implored them to stay.* It became urgent to furnish spir-
itual succor to these forsaken Catholics.

I a:

f ■'

CHAPTER V.

THE CHURCH IN THE REPUBLIC.
Maryland (17T6-1790)— Negotiations for the orection of an Episcopal See.

Father Lewis, Vicar-general of Maryland, called a general
meeting of all the missionaries to deliberate on the state of reli-
gion, and two meetings for this purpose were held at Whitemarsh
on the 27th of June and 6th of November, 1783. It was at the
latter meeting that the memorial to the Sacred Congregation " de
propaganda fide," already mentioned, was signed. A committee

* One of these chaplains wrote an account of his travels: "Nonveau
Voyage dans I'Amerique Septentrionale en 1781 et cainpn^ne do I'arniio du
Comte de Rochambeau, par I'Abb^ Robin, Philadelphie et Paris, 1782." The
author shows himself unfortunately imbued with some of the philosophical
ideas of the time, and instead of displaying zeal for the destitute Catliolics,
indulges in a dull enthusiasm for the Revolution. We had expected to find
in this rare work some interesting details, ])ut meet only superficial observa-
tions. He officiated at Baltimore to the great joy, ho says, of the Acadluijr,
there, then chiefly sailors.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

was also appointed to draw up a regulation " to establish a form
of government for the clergy, and lay down rules for the adminis-
tration, and government of their property." This regulation, in
eighteen articles, adopted by the missionaries on the 11th of Oc-
tober, 1784, established a general chapter and district chapters,
appointed a Procurator distinct from the Superior in spiritualibus,
subjecting the latter's measures to the approval of the district
chapters. These arrangements, taken without any canonical au-
thority, could of course be only provisional, and Father Farmer,
one of the missionaries, thus speaks of them in a letter to Father
Carroll, on the 19th of January, 1785:

" I cannot conceive how ve could bo a body without a bishop
for a head. We may have a voluntary union among ourselves, I
allow, but it cannot constii . "a canonical body of clergy, un-
less declared and appointee . .^ such either by the Supreme Pas-
tor, or rather by a bishop set over us by him. Our association,
even in temporalibus, I am afraid, will be looked upon rather as
a combination."*

It was evident that some germs of independence were develop-
ing in the Maryland clergy, in contact with the spirit of political
and religious rebellion which forms the basis of the American
character. But the Holy See watched with paternal solicitude
over the rising Church of America, and on beholding the princi-
ples of toleration for Catholicity, which Protestantism now first
acknowledged in the United States, Rome at once saw the pre-
cious advantage to be gained for religion. The Holy See imme-
diately thought of establishing the Church in Maryland on a
more independent base, and of releasing it from all spiritual
subordination to England. It thus anticipated the wishes of the
missionaries assembled at Whitemarsh ; and at the same time,
showing a sincere deference for the government of the United

* Campbell in U. S. Catholic Magazine, iii. 800.

11' ■

T ■ i'

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

States, transmitted through Monseigncur Dovia, archbishop of Se-
leucia and nuncio at the court of Paris, the following note to Dr.
Franklin, then American minister . _ Paris :

"The Nuncio-apostolic has the honor to transmit to Mr.
Franklin the subjoined note, lie r. quests him to cause it to be
presented to the Congress of the United States of North America,
and to support it with his influence.
" July 28, 1783."

Note. — "Previous to the revolution which has just been com-
pleted in the United States of North America, the Catholics and
missionaries of those provinces depended, in spiritual matters, on
the Vicar-apostolic residing in Loudon. It is now evident that
this arrangement can be no longer maintained ; but, as it is ne-
cessary that the Catholic Christians of the United States should
have an ecclesiastic to govern them in matters pertaining to reli-
gion, the Congi'egation " de propaganda fide," existing at Rome,
for the establishment and pi'cservation of missions, have come to
the determination to propose to Congress to establish in one of
the cities of the United States of North America one of their
Catholic bretnT'OTi, with the authority and power of Vicar-apos-
tolic, and the dignity of Bishop; or simply with the rank of
Apostohcal Prefect. The institution of a Bishop Vicar-apostolic
appears the most suitable, insomuch as the Catholics of the
United States may have within their reach the reception of con-
firmation and orders in their own country. And as it may some-
times happen that among the members of tlie Catholic body in
the United States, no one may be found qualified to undertake the
charge of the spiritual government, either as Bishoj^ or Prefect-
apostolic, it may be necessary, under such circumstances, that
Congress should consent to have one selected from some foreign
nation on close terms of friendship with the United States."

The Maryland missionaries learned this project through their

m *

i ':

IN THE UNITED STATES.

tlio

3Ct-

igu
leir

agent at Rome, Father John Thorpe, an Enghsh cx-Jesuit, who
resided there from 1756 till his death in 1*792. They also learned
the action of Congress on the Nuncio's note, and, still believing
*hat the time had not come for a bishop in the United States,
took, in October, 1784, the following curious resolution:

"It is the opinion of a majority of the chapter, that a Superior
in spirituallbus^ with powers to give cot (irmation, grant faculties,
dispensations, bless oils, etc., is adequate to the present exigencies
of religion in this country. Resolved, therelbre,

" 1st. That a bishop is at present unnecessary.

" 2d. That if one be sent, it is decided by the majority of the
chapter, that he shall not be entitled to any support from the
]>resent estates of the clergy.

" 3d. That a committee of three be appointed to prepare and
give an answer to Rome, conformable to the above resolution.

" 4tli. That the best measures ho taken to bring in six proper
clergymen as soon as possible, and the means be furnished by the
chapter out of the general fund, except when otherwise provided."

The letter to the Holy Father Avas prepared and signed, on be-
half of his associates, by Father Bernard Diderick, who transmitted
it to Father Thorpe at Rome. The latter had the good sense not
to deliver it, and the Holy See could thus officially ignore a luusty
and inconsiderate step. Dissatisfaction at not having been co)i-
«ulted by the Propaganda doubtless caused this resolution of the
chapter, but the Court of Rome n n-er intended to oftend the
zealous missionaries of Maryland, whose labors it highly a;)prc^i"
ated. Their advice had oven been sought, aud as eaily as May
12, 178-1-, seven months before the Whitcmarsh resolutions, the
Apostolic Nuncio at Paris wrote to Father John Carroll :

" The interests of religion, sir, requiring new arrangements
relative to the missions in the United States of North America,
the CongTogation of the Propaganda direct me to request from

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

you a full Ktntement of the actual condition of those missioiiA. In
the mean time, I beg that you will inform me what number of
missionaries may be necessary to serve them and fuinish spnitual
aid to Catholic Christians in the United States ; in what provin-
ces there are Catholics, and where is tlie greatest number of them ;
and lastly, if there are, among the natives of the country, fit sub-
»ects to receive holy orders and exercise the function of missiona-
ries. You will greatly oblige me personally by the attention and
industry which you will exercise in procuring for mo this infor-
mation.

" I have the honor to be, with esteem and consideration, sir,
your very humble and obedient servant,

f J., Archbishop of Seleucia,

" Apostolical Nuncio."

(( J.

This letter, in consequence of the vicissitudes of navigation,
reached Father Carroll only in November. Monseigneur Doria,
Nuncio at Paris, had added a memorandum of questions, from
which we extract two :

" 1. Who among the misrionaries might be the most worthy,
and, at the same time, agreeabie to the members of the assembly
of those provinces, to be invested with the character of Bishop m
partihus, and the quality of Vicar-apostolic ?

" 2. If among these ecclesiastics there is a native of the conn-
try, and he should be among the most worthy, he should be }»re-
ferred to all others of equal merit. Otherwise choice should be
made of one from some other nation. In default of a missionary
actually residing in those provinces, a Frencliman will be nomi-
nated, who will go to establish himself in America."*

But the Holy See, in its admirable prudence, understanding
that the negotiations for the establishment of a bishop would re-

* U. S. Catholic Magazine, iii. 878.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

quire time, resolved in the interim to give Maryland a provisional
ecclesiastical organization ; and the Propaganda, yielding to the
wish expressed in the first memorial of the American missionanes,
named Carroll Superior of the mission, with extended powers, and
exempted Maryland from all dependence on the Vicariate Apos-
tolic of London. This choice shows that Rome already thought
of the same Father as one proper to raise to the Episcopal dig-
nity, and of this we have a proof in Thorpe's letter to Carroll,
dated at Rome, June 9, 1'784 :

" Dear Sir : — This evening ample faculties are sent by the
Congregation of the Propaganda, e rpowering you to confer the
sacrament of confirmation, bless oils, etc., until such time as the
necessary information shall be taken in ^N'orth America and sent
liither, for promoting you to the dignity and character of a bishop.
On their arrival here you will be accordingly so nominated by the
Pope, and the place determined for your consecration. Cardinal
Borromeo sent for me to give me this intelligence, on the veracity
of which you may entirely depend, though you should nof >ra
any mistake, have received it from other hands. When the Nun-
cio, M. Doria, at Paris, applied to Mr. Franklin, the old gentle-
man remembered you; he had his memory refreshed before,
though you had modestly put your own name in the last place of
the list. I heartily congratulate your countiy for having obtained
so worthy a pasto • Whatever I can ever be able to do in serv-
ing your zeal for religion shall always be at your command.

" I am ever most aftectiouately and most respectfully yours,

J. Thorpe."*

It is curious to see in Franklin's memoirs the influence of this
philosopher in an event so important to the Church, and we shall

* U. S. Catholic Magazine, iii. 879.

THE CVTHOLIC CHURCH

HI '

be excused for transferring the foUowinjr p<i<:?c, which Jelongs to
the history of the Church in the United St^es:

"1784, July 1st. — The Pope's Nuncio called, and acquainted
me that the Pope had, on my recommendation, appointed Mr.
John Carroll Suj:>erior of the Catholic clergy in America, with
many of the powers of a bishop, and that probably he would bo
made a bishop in j^cirtibua before the end of the year. Ue ask^d
which would bo most convenient for him — to come to France, or
to go to St. Domingo for ordination by another bishop, which
was necessary. I mentioned Quebec as more convenient than
either. He asked whetiier, as that was an English province, our
government might not take oflfence at his going thither. I
thought not, unless the ordination by that bishop should give
him some authority over our bishop. He said not in the least ;
that when our bishop was once ordained, he would be indepen-
dent of the other, and even of the Pope, which I did not clearly
imderstand. Ho said the Congregation "de propag.Mida fide"
had agreed to receive and maintain and ir struct two young
Americans in the languages and sciences at Rome. Ho had for-
merly told me that more would be educated gi'atis in France.
He added, they had written from America that there are twenty
priests, but that they are not sufficient, as tlie new settlements
near the Mississippi have need of some.

" The ^Tuncio said we should find that the Catholics were not
so intolerant as they had been represented ; that the Inquisition
in Rome had not now so much power as that in Spain ; and that
in Spain it was used chiefly as a prison of state ; that the Con-
gregation would have undertaken the education of more Ameri(;aa
youths, and may hereafter, but that at present they are overbur-
dened, having some from all parts of the world."*

Franklin communicated to Congress the projects of the Coui1

* Sparks' Lif^ uud Writiugs of Franklin, i. 5S. Cited by Campbell.

14 1:

IN THE UNITED STATES.

of Ronio, and received an answer to tlio eftbct that the Federal
government had no opinion to express on a question not in its
jurisdiction. Religious affairs were under the control of the sev-
eral States. This was at least showing the absence of all opposi-
tion to a Catholic hierarchy ; an'^ if Protestant fanaticism did not
attempt to excite the people 'md irritate religious passions, it was
because France was too necv^ssaiy an ally to permit any insult to
the religious feelings of Louis XVI. That monarch, it was
known, took a lively interest in tlio spread of Catholicity in
America, and France may thus claim the glory of having given
its powerful aid to the Holy See in foundmg the American Epis
copate. /

We have gone at some length into these little known negotia-
tions, because we know nothing better fitted to inspire confidence
and esteem for the tutelary authority of the Sovereign Pontificate.
The Maryland missionaries believe it to be for the interest of re-
ligion that the United States should be erected into a Church in-
dependent of England. Rome anticipates their desires, and her
paternal solicitude, inspired by the Holy Ghost, discovers the
wants of remote churches, even before the latter express them.
The missionaries fear lest some hostile influence should disregard
th'^:. rights or compromise the fruit of their labors. The Holy
See kindly hears their representations, well founded at times, and
far from being swayed by any party, religious or political, tries
above all to secure the permanent interests of religion in a coun-
try whose government, laws, and institutions, so different from
those of Europe, were then but imperfectly understood. Hence
the prudent precaution to obtain the approval, or at least the neu-
trality of Congress, and the eagerness to choose a person named
by the representative of the United States at Paris. The Mary-
land clergy desire that the Superior should be taken from among
them, and Rome at once concedes it. They see no immediate
opportunity for the appointment of a bishop. Rome consents to

THE CATHOLIC CUURCH

postpone its projects, the wisdom of which is now so pnlpable, in-
tismuch as the grout progress of religion in the United States
can, as all admit, bo attributed only to the foundation of the
Episcopate. IJut when the missionaries see that Rome is un-
changeable, they represent that, in order not to excite fanaticism,
the creation of a titular bishop, enjoying all his rights, would suit
America better than a Vicar-apostolic, whose immediate (h'peud-
ency on the Congregation " de propaganda fide" would seem to
constitute a sort of religious servitude. The Holy See welcomed
this, too, and thus this question of titular bishops, which has been
so misunderstood in England, and considered by the partisans of
the established Church as augmenting the direct authority of the
See of Rome, this question, more justly appreciated in America,
was presented as a means of reconciling nice republican suscepti-
bility to the foundation of a Catholic hierarchy. Rome went
further in order to prove to the worthy American missionaries
her affection and appreciation of their zeal jind labors. When in
fact they appreciated the views of the Sovereign Pontif}*, they re-
ceived an authorization to proceed themselves to the election of a
bishop, to be submitted to the Court of Rome, as Father Carroll
recounts in these temis, in a letter of 1789 :*

" In the middle of last month, I received a letter from Cardinal
Antonelli, dated in July last, in which he informs me that his
Holiness has granted our request for an ordinary bishop, whose
See is to be fixed by ourselves, and the chpice made by the offici-
ating priests. We are going to take the affair up immediately,
and God will, I hope, direct us to make a good choice. This

* Pins VI. had appointed a committee of cardinals of the Congregration
" do propnganda fide" to examine this affair ; and on the 12th of July, 1789,
a decree was approved by the Pope, directing all the priests exercising the
ministry in the United States to assemble and determine in what city the See
should be, and who of themselves seemed most worthy to be raised to the
Episcopacy— a privilege granted as a favor, and fortliat t'mo only. (Rohr-
baoht.', xxvil. 279.)

IN TIxE UNITED STATP:S.

trust is my consolation. Ollierwise I should be full of apprehen-
sion to see the choice fall where it mi^ht bo fatal."

This expression shows that Father Carroll dreaded to see him-
self chosen for the eminent post to which hh high merit, and the
success with which he had for five yearn adniiiiisteretl the mis-
sions as Superior or Prefect-apostolic, called him. In fact, the
election took place in May, 1789, and Father Carroll being cho-
sen Bishop of Baltimore, the choice was ratified at Rome on the
6th of November in that year.

CHAPTER VI.

DIOCESE OF BALTIMORE.

Consecration of Bishop Carroll— Jesuit collcRe Bt Georgetown— Sulpitian somlnsry at
Baltinior*— The French clergy In the United States — Bishop Nealo coadjutor— Keor-
ganiiation of the Society of Jesus— Importance of French immigration.

On the 6th of November, 1789, Pope Pius VI. founded the
Episcopal See of Baltimore, instituting Father John Carroll as first
bishop; and thus, at the moment when the revolution preludeu the
tempest which was for a time to engulf the Church of France, Provi-
dence raised up beyond the ocean another Church, where the noble
exiles of the priesthood were to find a hospitable refuge. The
new prelate no sooner received the Bulls from the Sovereign Pon-
tiff than he proceeded to England to be. consecrated. The pious
Thomas Weld wished the ceremony to take place in his castle of
Lulworth, and that ancient pile, honored in our day by the pres-
ence of the exiled king, Charles X., is identified wit?) the origin
of the Episcopacy in the United States. The consecration took
place in the college chapel on Sunday, August 15th, 1790; and

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

il'

I*', i

ill roincnibrnnco of tluit duy, HiKhop Carroll clios« tho foaKt of
tlio Assumption as (ho patronal tt'a«t of lii.s vast diocese. Tho
sermon was delivered by T'litJier Charles IMowdcii, and tho conse-
crating prelate was the learned and scientific JJishoj) Walmsley,
tho Dean of tho Vicars-apoatolic in England. Bishop Carroll ro-
embarked for Baltimore tho following October, and by a curious
coincidence ho was, b<Hh going and coining, a fellow-voyager of
Mr. Madison, tho I'rotestant Ei)iKCopal iiiohup of Virginia, wlio
had also been to England to obtain Episcoi)al institutior). Mr,
Madison conceived a high esteem for tho Catholic prelate, and
maintained it during the rest of his life.

The Jiishop of Baltimore zealously undertook four enterprises es-
sential to tlio religious prospects of the United States — the Catholic
education of youth, the formation of a national clergy, tho ereclion
of churches, the foundation of female communities to take care of
the sick and orphans. Tho first of these works was the most urgent,
for it was imperative to furnish Catholic youth a Catholic educa-
tion at home, in order to preserve them from tho dangers of I'ro-
testant schools. As early as 1788, Bishop Carroll, then only
Vicar-general, had begun the erection of Georgetown College, and
the ox-Jesuits employed a part of tho Society's j)roperty for tho
creatiou of that useful establishment. The Jesuits were at first
too few to perform at once tho functions of missionary priests and
those of teachers ; they called to their aid at Georgetown priests
of other societies. Thus the Ileverend Louis Dubourg, a Sulpitian
and eventually Bishop of New Orleans, was President of tho col-
lege in lYOG, and another Sulpitian, Ambrose Marechal, Professor
of Philosophy iu 1799. But even before the restoration of tho
Society in 1814, tho disciples of St. Ignatius had the exclusive
direction of the noble college which for the last sixty-five years
has brought up generations in science and letters. By a happy
turn of aft'airs which contributed to givc^ a considerable import-
ance to Georgetown, the site of the federal city of Washington

IN TUE L'NITKl) STATKS.

was cliosen sciirco n l»;a<ifUo from thu collcj^c, so that tlio .K'siiils
fuutul thoniHclviis htiiliuiied iit tliu vory <^aUs of tho CHijiitol.* In
1816 Congress invoHtt'd this college ^vith the privileges of a uni-
versity, and this fonndation of Uishop Carroll remains cno of his
greatest titles to fame.

The Bishop of Baltimore had at first intended to open a semi-
nary also at (Jeorgotown; hut diu'ing a visit to England, ho en-
tered into correspondence with Mr. Emery, Superior-general of
the Society of St. Sulpico, wlioso wise foresight then sought to
shelter his Society from the storms of tho revolution. Wiieii
Mr. Emery saw tho National Assembly of Franco threaten with
destruction all tho religious institutions of that country, ho n^-
solvcd to prepare a refuge, that St. Suli)ico might bo preserved
from total extinction, in cjiso it shoidd bo suppressed at Paris.
IIo nccorilingly sent his assistant, Mr. Nagot, to Londt^)!!, and
we may easily conceive how eagerly liishop Carroll welcomed
his overtures, from tho following letter of September 25th,
1700:

" Providence seems to favor our views. In consequence of a
previous correspondence between the Nuncio at l*aris and Mr.
Emery, Superior-general of St. Sulpice, on tho one hand, and my-
self on tho other, Mr. Nagot, Superior du Petit Seminaire do St.
Sulpico, has been here. We havo settled that two or three gen-
tlemen selected by Mr. Emery shall come over to Baltimore next
spring. They are furnished with the means of purchasing gro'uid
for buildings, and, I hope, of endowing a seminary for young
ecclesiastics. I believe they will bring three or four seminarians
with them, who are either English, or know it. They will be

* Oretinciiu Joly (vi. 863) snya thiit Georijctowii CoUctro was founded
altnost at iho gates of \Vuhhin<,'toti. .Inst tlic reverse. The colleijo wua
opened in 1701, Wasliiiif^toii created in 1702. (ioorj^etown (.'olloffe contains.
two hundred and sixty boarders, and tho Jesuit day-schools in Washington
two hundred and fifty pupils more.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

V ^

amply provided with books, apparatus for tlie altar, church, etc. — «
professors of philosophy and divinity. I propose fixing these
very near to my own home, the Cathedral of Baltimore, that they
may be, as it were, the clergy of the church, and contribute to
the dignity of divine worship. This is a great and auspicious
event for our diocese, but it is a melanchol " reflection that
we owe so great a blessing to the lamentable catastroj^he iu
France."*

Mr. Nagot returned to Paris to put tlie plan in execution, but
the Sulpitians experienced great difficulties in realizing a part of
their property and in sailing for America, in consequence of the
political convulsions of that wretched period. They were power-
fully aided, especially in the transfer of the funds, by Governeur
Morris, American ambassador at Paris ; and at last, on the 8th
of April, 1791, Mr. F. 0. Nagot, Superior, embarked at St. Malo,
accompanied by Mr. Levadoux, Procurator, Messrs. John Tessier
and Anthony Gamier, Professors of Theology, and Mr. Delavan,
a Canon of St. Martin of Tours.f They had with them five semi-
narians, and lastly, a fellow-voyager of quite a different stamp,
the young Francis de Chateaubriand, then on his way to America
in pursuit of one of his first chimeras, the northwest passage.
We have examined his Memoires d'Outre Tombe, to see vhat he
might have said of this voyage undertaken in such holy com-
pany, and the reflections which it inspired seem to us not out of
place :

" I chose Si. Malo to embark, and struck a bargain with a cap-

* Brent's Sketch of Bishop Ciirroll, 125.

+ Aceordhigto a manuscript of the Abbe Dillet, preserved at the seminary
in Baltimore, the idea of transfcrrinis: the Society of St. Sulpico out of J'rance
was sujtrgested to Mr. Emery by Mr. de St. Felix, Superior of the Seminary
of Tours. On the closing of the Seminary of Orleans, Mr, Chicoisnea;;, the
Superior, wished to emigrate to America with several other Sulpitian pro-
fessors, but they were unable to do so, though Mr. Chicoisncau subsequontly
came to the United States, and resided for a time at Baltimore.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

taiu named Desjardiiis. IIo was to cany to Baltimoro the Abbe
Nagot,-^ Superior of St. Sulpice, and several seminarians under thb
guidance of their chief. These travelling companions would have
Buited me better four years before. I had been a zealous Chris-
tian, but had become a ' strong mind' — that is, a ' weak mind.'
This change in my religious opinions had been effected by the
reading of the philosophers of the day. I sincerely believed tliat
a religious mind was paralyzed on one side ; that there w^ere
truths which could not reach it, superior as it might otherwise
be. I supposed in the religious mind the absence of a faculty
found especially in the philosophic mind. A purblind mau thinks
he sees all because he has his eyes open ; a superior mind is con-
tent to close its eyes because it perceives all within.

"Among my fellow-voyagers was an Englishman. Francis
Tallok had served in the artillery. Painter, musician, mathema-
tician, he spoke several languages. Tlie Abbe Nagot, having
met the English officer, made a Catholic of him, and ,was taking
his convert to Baltimore."*

After a painful voyage of three months, stopping at the Azores,
St. Pierre and Miquelon, Nagot and his companions reached Bal-
timore.

Bisliop CaiToll was then on a pastoral visit at Boston, when
Mr. Nagot and his companions arrived, but on his return he
gave them a most cordial welcome, as we may see by the follow-
ing letter of the prelate, wiitten in September following:

" Wlieu I returned from Boston, in July, I had the happiness
of finding here M. Nagot with his company from St. Suljiice ;
himself and three other priests belonging to the establishment,

* Mcmoirc > d'Outre Toinbe, par Cliatoaubriand, Francis Charles Nagot,
born at Tours in 1734, was long Director of the Petit Seniir.airo of St.
Sulpice, and also Director of the Grand Seminaire. Of his important ser-
vices to tlic American Church we sliall speak more at lengtVi hereafter, ia
cotniection with St. Mary's College and Seminary, of both of which ho may
be considered the founder.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

ti\M

hi »

viz., .'i procurator and two professors, and five seniinarians,*
They will be joined soon by one or two natives of this comitry.
These now, with Mr. Delavan, a Avorthy French priest, form the
clergy of my cathedral (a paltry cathedral) and attract a great
concourse of all denominations, by the decency and exactneiss
with wldch they perform all parts of divine sernce.

" If in many instances the French Revolution has been fatal to
religion, this country promises to derive advantage from it."f

Mr. Nagot immediately bought an inn, with four acres of
ground, for the sum of eight hundred and fifty pounds, Maryland
currency, and at once opened his seminary there ; at the same
time sending one of his companions, Mr. De Moudesir, to teach
at Georgetown. The two establishments thus aided each other,
Jesuit and Sulpitian, vying in zeal for the good of religion. The
college was to be the hive of the seminary, as that was to be of
the American clergy. But before the seminary had time to form
young subjects for the priesthood, the persecutions of the Reign
of Terror drove to the United States learned and experienced
priests, who enabled Bishop Carroll to multiply the missions and
extend the circle far beyond the limits of Maryland, in New Eng-
hind, Kentucky, and the most remote territoiy of the West. The
essential service of these priests will appear in all its light when
we come to speak of the other dioceses of the United States, and
a bishop, himself a native of the country, has justly said :

" The Catholic Church in the United States is deeply indebted
to the zeal of the exiled Fi'ench clergy. No portion of the

* Of tlic companions of Nagot wo may mention Jolm Floyd, an Englisli-
man, ordained by Eisliop Carroll in 17'Jo, and who built a church at the
Point in Baltimore, and died there of a contagious disease in 1797; and John
Thomas Michael Edward Pierron Do Mondosir, born in March, 1770, in tho
jiarish of St. Hilairo do Nogont Ic Kolrou. Ho wivs oi laincd on tho 30th of
Soptember, 179S, but returned to Prance in 1801. They wore tiic third and
fourth priests ordained in the TTiiited States.

t lirciit's JJiograjiiiical Sketcli, l^^tj.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

American Chuvclx owes more to them than that of Kentucky.
They supplied our infant missions with most of their earUest and
most zealous laborers, and they likewise gave to us our first,
bishops. There is something in the elasticity and buoyancy of
character of the French which adapts them in a peculiar manner
to foreign missions. They have always been the best missiona-
ries among the North Amei-ican Indians ; they can mould their
character to suit every circumstance and emergency ; they can
be at home and cheerful everywhere. The French clergy who
landed on our shores, though many of them had been trained up
amid all the refinements of polished France, could yet submit
without a murmur to all the hardships and privations of a mis-
sion on the frontiers of civilization, or in the very heart of the
wilderness. They could adapt themselves to the climate, mould
themselves to the feelings and habits of a people opposite to them
in temperament and character."*

The most celebrated of these venerable exiles were the Abbe
John Dubois, who landed at Norfolk in July, 1791, and who be-
came in 1826 Bishop of New York; the Abbes Benedict Flaget,
John B. David, and Stephen Badin, who reached Baltimore in the
same vessel, on the 26th of March, 1792; the Abbes Francis
Malignon, Ambrose Marechal, Gabriel Richard, and Francis Ci-
([uard followed close on these last, and presented themselves to
Bishop Carroll on the 24th of June, 1792. The year 1794 in-
creased the clergy of the United States by the arrival of the Abbe
Louis Dubourg, afterwards Bishop of New Orleans, and of the
Abbes John Moranville, Donatian Olivier, and Rivet. In 1796
came the Abbo Fournicr, a missionary in Kentucky, and the
Abbo John Lefovre Cheverus, afterwards Bishop of Boston; in
1798 the Abbo Anthony Salmon joined his friend Fournier, and
others still, weary of loading a useless life in England or Spain,

* Sketches of t lie Early Catholic Missions of Kentucky, by M. J. Spalding,
D. D., Louisville, IS 15, page 56.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

ft!
II

; ,> ■

■ ('
'i ■

■ i

left those countries where thay received a generous hospitality to
come and exercise a painful ministry in America, and condemn
themselves to a life of privation.*

The Abbo Marechal •svas ordained at Bordeaux the very day he
sailed, and said his first Mass at Baltimore. The Abbe Stephen
Badin Avas raised to the priesthood in Baltimore on the 25th of
May, 1793, and was the first priest ordained in the United States.

The foundation of Georgetown College and the Sulpitian Sem-
inary gave the diocese of Baltimore some stability, and Bishop
Carroll was enabled to assemble his clergy in a Synod in Novem-
ber, I'i'Ol ; twenty ecclesiastics were present; it was determined

* John Dubois, born in Paris in 1764, ordained in 1787, came to America
in 1791, founded St. Mary's in 1807, Bishop of Nsw York m 1826, died
in 1842.

Benedict Flaget, born at Bellom in 1764, Sulpitian in 1783, priest in 1788,
missionary at Vincennes, Ind., in 1792, Bishop of BastJstown in 1810, trans-
feired to Louisville in 1841, died in 1850.

John B. David, born near Nantes in 1760, priest of St. Sulpice in 1784,
missionary in Maryland in 1792, in Kentucky in 1811, coadjutor of Bards-
town, and Bishop of Mauricastro in partibus in 1819, died in 1841.

Stephen Badin, born at Orleans in 1768, ordained priest at Baltimore in
1793, missionary in Kentucky in 1793, died at Cincinnati in 1853.

Francis Matignon, born at Paris in 1753, priest in 1773, missionary at Bos-
ton in 1792, died at Boston in 1818.

Ambrose Marechal, born at Orleans in 1768, priest of St. Sulpice 1792,
Arclibishop of Baltimore in 1817, died in 1828.

Gabriel Kichard, born at Saintcs in 1764, Sulpitian, ordained in 1792, mis-
sionary in 1796, at Detroit from 1798, deputy to Congress from Michigan in
1823, nominated Bisliop of Detroit, died of cholera at Detroit in 1882.

Francis Ciquard, born at Clermont, ordained in 1779, a Sulpitian, mission-
ixry among the Ir liars of Maine in 1792, died at Montreal.

Louis T'i'ibourt:'. born at St. Domingo in 176G, priest of St. Sulpice in 1795,
Bishop of New (rleans in 1815, of Montauban in 1826, Arclibishop of Be-
f?an<;on in 1883, died in 1833.

John Moranvill.?, born near Amiens in 17G0, missionary at Cayenne in
1784, came to the United States in 1794, stationed at Baltimore in 1804, died
at Amiens in 1824.

The Abbe Fournier, bom in the dicoese of Blois, missionary in Kentucky
in 1791, died in 1803.

John Lefevre Cheverus, born a^ Mayenne in 1768, priest in 1790, Bishop

IN THE ;'JMTED STATES.

to solicit of the Holy See the division of the United States into
several dioceses, or at least the appointment of a coadjutor to
share the burden of the Episcopate. With all his zeal, Bishop
Carroll could not extend his pastoral visits over his immense dio-
cese, and Pius VI., aMve to the religious wants of America, ap-
pointed as coadjutoi Father Leonard Neale, who was consecrated
at Baltimore, Bishop of Gortyna in partibus, in the course of the
year 1800.

Leonard Neale was born in Maryland on the 15th of October,
1*746, and belonged to a distinguished family, whose ancestors
figure among the first colonists of Lord Baltimore.* His mother,
a pious and courageous widow, who had already parted with four
sons to send them to the Jesuit college of St. Omers, to be edu-
cated, resolved to give little Leonard the same advantages, and at
the age of twelve he too embarked for France. There he followed
the example of his brothers, who had all entered the Society of
Jesus, while their sister Anne became a Poor Clare, at Aire in
Artois. But Father Leonard had scarcely pronounced his vows
when ihe dispersion of the Society compelled him to retire to

of Boston in 1810, of Montauban in 1818, Arclibishop of Bordeaux in 182G,
Cardinal in 1836, died in 1836.

The Abbo Eivet, born at Limoges, missionary at Vincennea in 1795, died
in 1303.

Anthony Salmon, born in the diocese of Blois, missionary in Kentucky in
1798, died of cold, in tlio snow, near Bardstowr iji 1799.

The Abbe Barriere escaped from prison at Bordeaux, and reached Balti-
more in 1798, missionary in Kentucky and Louisiana, died at Bordeaux in
1814.

Anthony Gamier, born in the diocese of La Eochelle in ^'"'■9., pastor of St.
Patrick's, Baltimore, in 1792, returned to France in 1803, auperior-general
of St. Sulpice in 1827> died in 1845, at the age of eighty-three.

John Tessier became President of the Seminary of Baltimore on Mr. N»-
got's resignation in 1810.

Peter Babade, born at Lyons, came to America in 1796, died at Lyons in
1846.

Donation Olivier, born at Nantes in 174C, missionary in Illinois in 1795,
died in 1841, at the age of ninety-five.

* See Davis's Day-star, pp. 243, 244.

r|l

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

England. In 1779 he resolved to gr< and ovanj^clize Doinerarn,
in English Guiana, and tliero ho preached the fuith successfully
to the natives ; but the persecutions of the colonists prevented his
continuing his ministry even in that deadl)' climat»% and in 1783
Father Neale set out for Maryland. After having liecn attach* 1 1
to several churches in that State, ho was sent in 179^ to Philu-
delphia, where the yellow fever had carried off the tno Jesuits
who directed that missiu?i. Father Neale was unwearied in brav-
ing the pestilence and rescuing its victims by uis charitable care.
In 1797 and 179B the same cpidcniio renowed its frightful
ravages in Philadelphia, and fouifd ih:) mivsionary hi the breach,
ever ready to bear the consolations of hu rrnnwtry to the sick and
dying. lu 1799 Bishop (Jurroll call>J him t'> preside over
Georgetown College, where he succeeded Mr, Pubourg, and ho
was still in that post when the Episcopal dignity surprised
him.*

The two 6>.- Jesuits, become I'ir-hops, would, it may be imagined,
cars little abou' the fate of their Society, extinguished thirty
years before. But the sons of the Society of Jesus never forget
their mother, and as aooxi as Bishop Carroll learned- that the So-
ciety still, in a manner, ^..rvived in the Russian emp?'re, he begged
Father Gruber to readmit die Fathers living in the UnHod States.
He added that the property of the Society was preserved almost

* Notice on the Most Rev. Leonftrd Neale, second Archbishop of Balti-
more, by M. C. Jenkins. U. S. Catholic Magazine, iii. 505. Oliver's precioua
Collection enables us to give the names of the five brothers :

William Neale, born August 14, 1743, died in 1799 at Manchester Hospital,
insane.

Benedict Neaje, bom Am^ust 14, 1743, apparently a twin brother of the
former, died in Maryland i.^ 1787.

Cluulto Neale, who died at Georgetown, April 28, 1823.

Leonard Neale, born 15th October, 174G (Oliver says 1747), died in 1817.

Francis Neale, born in 1755. died in Maryland in I'^-T

There seeme to be some confusion, however, as lard is styled the
ycujigest.

IX THE UNITED STATES.

ti-
lls

jutact, and that it would siipjx)!! thii'tv religious. The letter of
thft bif iM p and of his coadjutor is dated May 25, 1803, and con-
tfiiniS t^iis remarkable passage of modesty and self denial :

' Wi' ') 1 e been so much employed in ministries foreign to our
institute ; we are so inexperienced in government ; the want of
books, even of the constitutions and decrees of the congregations,
is so flagrant, that you cannot find one Jesuit among us sufficiently
qualified by health and strevigth, as well as other requisites, to
fulfil tiie duties of Superior. It would seem then most expedient
iv^ send here some' Father from those around you. He must
know your intentions thoroughly, and be prudent enough to un-
dertake nothing precipitately before he has studied the govern-
ment, laws, and spirit of this republic, and the manners of the
people."

There were then in Maryland only thirteen Jesuits, nearly all
broken with age and missionary toils. Father Gruber at once
authorized a renewal of their vows, and Fathers Robert Molyneux,
Charles Neale, Charles Sewall, and Sylvester Boarman availed
themselves of the permission ;* but he did not send a visitor from
Europe, as Father Carroll asked, and he had confidence enough
in the American Jesuits to name one of them Superior of the
whole missiop. The choice of Father Gruber fell on Father Mo-
lyneux, and there soon arrived in the TTnited States Fathers Adam
Britt, John Henry, F. Maleve, Anthony Kohlmann, P. Epinette,
Maximilian de Rautzeau, Peter Malou, John Grassi, and F. Van-
quickenlorne. These new auxiharies, with the Sulpitians and
otiier French priests, contributed not only to propagate the faith
rapidly in the United States, but cspeci;Jl/ to bnng back or re-
tain in the practice of religk/ he Cr'tholic settlers till then de-
prived of pastoi"?.*

* Laity's Directory for 1822, p. 128.

t Hcnrion, Histoire des Missions Catholiques, ii, 662; Cr^tineau Joly, Hia-
toiro de la Compn," .e de J^sus, vi. Cr)9 ; Laity's Directory, 124.

■^M^

K.1 i

m i

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Among tliu instruments of the regeneration of the Chui'ch in
the United States, we must not forget the many French famihes
who emigrated from St. Domingo at the close of the last century,
and settled at Baltimore or New York. In liis history of the
Huguenot refugees, Weiss enters into long details on those who
settled in America on the revocation of the edict of Nantes. The
author, following his system, exaggerates beyond all limit the im-
portance of that immigration, and draws an imaginary sketch of
the influence exercised on America, by the French Huguenots, in
agriculture, literature, politics, arts, sciences', civilization, and so
forth. We shall bo much more in truth's domain when we affirm
that the French Catholic families, driven from the West Indies
by the frightful consequences of the revolution, and who came to
seek peace and liberty in the United States, fav exceeded in num-
ber the Protestant immigration of the pi'evious century. Nay,
more : misfortune having purified their faith, these Creoles were
distinguished for their attachment to religion, and often became
the living models of American congregations. Without counting
Martinique and Guadaloupe, tho French part of St. Domingo
contained in 1*793 forty thousand whites. All emigrated to
escape being massacred by the blacks ; many mulattoes followed
them, and of this mass of emigrants a great part settled in the
United States.

The annals of Baltimore say that on the 9th of July, 1*793,
fifty-three vessels arrived at that port, bearing about one thousand
whites and R"<\ hundred colored people, flying from the disasters
of St. Domingo. These arrivals were followed by many others,
either at Baltimore or at other ports of the United States. In
1807 the Catholics in New York were estimated at fourteen
thousand, " a large part of whom are refugees from St. Domingo
and other islands."* Before joining the negro insurrection,

• Griffith's Annals of Baltimore, ". .0.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

Tou8saiut L'Ouverture protected the flight of the family whose
coachman he was, and enabled them and many other Creoles to
reach Baltimore. In a notice on Bishop Dubourg we read that
the disasters of St. Domingo cast on our hospitable shores a con-
siderable number of Catholic families and colored people, most of
them full of piety, and others disposed to it by misfortune.''' In
the Life of the Abbe Moranvillo we also find that, " besides the
emigration from France, a very large number of the most respect-
able inhabitants of St. Domingo, flying from the massacre of
1 793, found refuge at Baltimore. Many of these refugees were
endowed with eminent piety ;"f and the author of the Annals of
Baltimore says that these immigrations of French colonists in-
creased the wealth and population of the city..

We may also claim as French not only the inhabitants of
Michigan, Illinois, and Louisiana, but also the good Acadians
who were, in 1Y56, forcibly torn from their homes by the English,
and to the number of seven thousand, forced on board of ve^-sels,
which scattered them along the coast from Boston to Carolina,
leaving them to the charity of those among whom they were
thrown. The only crime of the Acadians was their religion and
birth (they were French Catholics), and their treatment is equalled
in perfidy only by the conduct of Charles III. of Spain to the
Jesuits.

Thus, English fanaticism and the disasters of the revolution
peopled the territory of the United States with more French
Catholics than the revocation of the edict of Nantes ever sent
Huguenots ; and we ourselves have been able to see with our own

* M6moire pour server il■aj^loll'e ccclesiastique pendant le xviii sieclo.
Paris, 1815, iii. 194.

t Catholic Almanac, 1839. Amonr tbose who thus c ■ 'rated to tliia

country wo need only mention the I ■■ • ther Nicholas Petit, of the Society

of Jesus, who recently died atTr^j, ; : w.-ose apostolical -abors in many

oarts of the con'-itry will long bo rLwiembercd by thor-e ho guided in tho

8 of perfeclior

iimK^<r*tsAnmr^^mgr''/^

'-^

"' i

THE CATHOLIC CIIUKCH

eyes how niaiiy clcscotKlants of the phintcij - ^' I'ommgo and
exiles of Acadie have faithfully presorvctl at New York, Baltimore,
Charleston, and New Orleans the faillt of their fathers.

CllA^^TER VII.

■■f r

THE ( HTTKCII IN MARYLAND.

The Carmelites— Poor Clares— Visitation nuns — Sisters of Cliarlty— Baltimore an ec-
clesiastical province willi four sutfragans— Death of Archbishop Carroll.*

After having provided, by the foundation of a college and
seminary, for the education of youth and the recruiting of the
priesthood, the Bishop of Baltimore's next care was to introduce
into Maryland religious communities of women, to instruct the
young of their own sex, nurse the sick, and adopt the orphan.
These good works have ever been the heritage of the Church,
and ephemeral indeed must be the branch whieh ims not yet
laid the foundation of convents for prayer or charity. Till 1*790
the United States did not know what a female religious was.f
It was only then that Father Charles Neale, brother of the future
coadjutor of Baltimore, brought with him from Belgnum to

* The year 1790 is a memorable era in Catholic publication in the United
States. The zealous Jesuits liad, even prior to the Kevolution, issue*' a few
prayer-books and the Following of Christ, all privately priute'' The faith-
ful now needed an edition of the Bible, and a quarto was p; li 1 by ' 'arey,
Stewart & Co., of Philadelphia, in 1790. But one edition ol .k Pro stant
version had then appeared in America, so that Catholics, so often traduced
as enemies of the BibI' >^\ere among the first to print it in this country, and
to this day can boast ui the finest edition, tbo unsurpassed Haydock from
Dunigan's press.

+ The Ursuline Convent at New Orleans was founded in 1727, but Louisi-
ftna at that time belonged to France. Before the close of the seveuteenth

IN THE UNITED STATES.

United
a fow
faith-
"urey,
stant
Juced
y, and
V from

America four Curnielitcy of St. Thei'csfi's reform, three of wliuin
were Americans, the fourth an Etij^lish hidy ; and tlius one of the
most auHfere orders in tlie Church was the first to naturah/,e itsell
in tlie United States, Father Cliarics Neale luid a cousin,
Mother Mary Margaret Brent, Superior of the Carmelite convent
at Antwerp, a house ffiundcd only thirty-seven years after St.
Theresa's death. At the rerpust of this lady, Father Charles
Neale in 17S0 assumed the spiritual direction of the convent, and
he, by his correspondence with his friends in Ameri(;a, excited a
desire to have a branch of the Carmelites at Port Tobacco, where
the Neale family resided. Father Carroll wrote to the Bishop of
Antwerp, and on the 19th of April, 1190, four Carmelites em-
barked at Antwerp with Father Neale for Maryland. They were
Mother Bernardino Mathews, Superior, her two sisters. Mothers
Aloysius and Eleanora Mathews, from the couvent of Hogstraet,
and Sister Mar Dickinson, of tfio convent of Antwerp. On the
15th of Octol > the Carmelites took possession of their house,
■which Father Neale had built at his own expense; and there
they practised their rule in all its severity, fasting eight months
in the year, wearing woollr!i, sleeping on straw, and otlering their
prayers and mortifications tor the salvation of souls. In 1800
they lost their Superior, who was succeeded by Mother Dickinson.
In 1823 Father Charles Neale, their venerable founder, died, after
having directed them by his counsels for thirty-three years. In
1810 Mother Dickinson followed him to the grave. Born in
London and educated in France, she had been a religious foi
fifty-eight years, and was revered as a saint by her spiritual

century, Canada had six female religious communities. Tlie following aro
the dates of their foundation :

lt);39 — Hospital Nuns, and Ursulincs of Quebec.

1642— Hospital Nuns of Montreal.

lt}53 — Sisters of the Congregation of Our I/ady.

lt)93 — Sisters of the General Hospital, Queboo.

1697— The Ursulinos of Three Rivera.

TIIK CATllOI-IC CllUUCn

<l!iu<,'liters. At this epoch tlio Cnniit'liU'H »urt'oroil the greatest
fniiiiH'ial onibjiiTu.sHjm'iits, so ns jictimlly to expciiciico all the pii-
vatioriK of want, in consoiiuenco of tlio inismauMgcment of the
farm from wliich thoy dorivod their support. Archhisliop Whit-
fiokl, touched hy their painful position, advised them to leave I'ort
Tobacco and remove to IJ/dlimore, where they might create re-
sources l)y opening a hoarding-school. The Holy See permitted
this modification of their rule, and on the 13th of Scptcndx'r,
IH.'Jl, the Carmelites, to the number of twenty-four, bade a
last farewell to the convent where most of tlusm had devoted
themselves to tho austerities of a religious life. On the next
day they reached Baltimore, and after otfering a short prayer
at tho cathedral, hastened to inclose themselves in their new
cloister.

Tho Carmelites had for several years, as ono of their chaplains,
the Abbo llorard, a French priest of the Holy Ghost, who had
left Framo for Guiana in 1*784, and withdrew to tho United
States during the revolution. Ho was long their most active
benefactor, gave them a considerable sum towards building their
chapel, and loft them a legacy, the income of which still sup-
ports their chaplain. Tho Carmelites at Baltimore now number
twenty sisters, and their contemplative life doubtless averts tho
scourges of God Irom tho land where his name is so dishonored.*

About 1792 some Poor Clares, driven from Franco by tho
hon'ors of the revolution, sought a refuge in Maryland. Their
names were Marie do la Marche, Abbess of the Order of St. Clare,

Celeste la Blonde do la Rochofoucault, and do St. Luc, and

they were assisted by a lay brother named Aloxis. They took

I'-..

* Catholic Magazine, viii. 24, 38. Tiio Curmclito Nuns wcro founded by
tho Blessed John Soreth, a Norman, tho twonty-sixth Genenil and first ro-
Ibrmcr of the CiirinclitOR. They wcro instituted by a Bull of Popo Nieholiis
V. in 1542. The Carmelite Nuns wcro reformed by St. Theresa in 1562, and
the Spanish reform introduced into France by Madame Acaric in 1G03.

■ t

IN THK UNITED STATKM.

ind

)0k

\\[» llioir ahodo at ^Jcorgctown, altlioiigh it is covtaiii tliat lliey
liatl a house! also at Frederick, as wo Icani from tlu! will of the
vi'iuTahU' AMh'ss, tiatod in lyoi, ami ina<l«! in favor of SiHtor do
1h UoclK'foiU'aidt. It is prcsorvt'd at (lio Vi.sitatioii Convent,
lioorgetf)wn, and bogius in those words: "I, Mary do la Marchc,
Ahhoss of tlio Order of St. (Maro, formerly of tho village of Sours
in Kranoo, and now of Frodoricik in Maryland."

In 1801 they i)ur(di;ised a lot on Lafayette-street, in George-
town, of .John Threlkcld, the d(!ed l»eing dated on the first of
August. The good sistom hud the consolation to bo near tho
college, which secured thein religious aid. They endeavored to
support theniRolvos at Georgetown by opening a scIuk)1, but they
had constantly to struggle with poverty ; and on the death of tho
Abbess in 1805, Madame de la Uochefoucault, who succeeded
her, sold tho convent to Bisliop Neale by deed of June 29th, 1 805,
and returned to Europe with her companion. As we saw in tho
last chapter, tho four brothel's Nealc, who entered the Society of
Jesus, had a sister, a Poor Clare, at Aire in Artois ; and it would
seem natural that, when tho convents in France were suppressed,
she and her companions should take refuge in Maryland ; but
there is nothing to show that she ever returned to America. It
doubtless did not enter the designs of Providence that the Order
of St. Clare should take root in the United States, reserving all
its benedictions for the Order of the Visitation.*

Miss Alice t^alor, who was the foundress of the Visitation Nuns
in America, was born about IVGG in Queen's county, Ireland, of
pious and worthy parents. She was brought up at Kilkenny,
whither her family removed when young Alice was still a child.

I re-
ikis
ind

* The Poor Clares, a brunch of tho Franciscan Order, were founded in
Italy in 1212 by St. Clare Scilia. St. Francis of Assissium gave them tlieir
rule in 1224. Reformed by St. Colette in 1435, the Poor Clares are extremely
austorc; they fast every day, never taking more than a single meaJ, except
on Christinas-day.

THE CATHOLIC ClIUKCH

- t

She was distinguished from her hrotliors mid sisters by her extra-
ordinary devotion, and made rapid progress in virtue under the
direction of the liov. Mr. Carroll, the parish priest of the place.
Dr. Lanigan, the bishop of the diocese, having ^nsited Kilkenny
when AHce Lalor was sixteen years of age, the young maiden
consulted that prelate on her desire of uniting herself to God by
the vow of chastity ; and after having her sincerity put to the
test, she received permission to follow her design, but without yet
leaving her fiimily.

Alice thiis lived some years in the world, till Bishop Lanigan,
wishing to form a religious community at Kilkenny, invited her
to join it. 8he accepted with joy, but was opposed in her voca-
tion by the will of her parents, who had then made up their
minds to emigrate to America, and who would not consent to
part with their daughter. She accordingly came out with them
in 1797, after having promised the prelate to return to Ireland in
two years, to embrace the religious state. Such was not, how-
ever, the design of the Almighty on his faithful handmaid. Sho
settled at Philadelphia with her family, and here confided her
projects to Father Leonard Neale, whom she took as her director.
He had long wished to found a religious community at Philadel-
phia, although he was yet undecided what order would best suit
the country. He showed Miss Lalor that America needed her de-
votednesr far more than Ireland did ; and being, as her confessor,
invested with the necessary powers, he released her from her
promise. Obedient to his counsels, Alice joined two other young
Avomen of Philadelphia, animated by a similar vocation to the
religious state. She left her family to begin under Father Neale's
direction • -louse for the education of girls. But the new institu-
tion had scarcely begun when the yellow fever opened its fearful
ravages in Philadelphia. Many of the people fled from the scourge,
and among them the parents of Miss Lalor. They used the most
touching appeals to induce her to accompany them, but she re-

IN THE UNITED STATES.

mainetl unsliaken at her post, and beheld her two companions
carried off by the pestilence, without being discoui'aged in her
resolution of devoting herself to God.

In 1799 Fatlier Neale having been appointed President of
Georgetown College, persuaded Miss Lalor to retire to the Chirist
convent in that city, so as not to be exposed to the world which
she had renounced. She left PhiL.delphia with a pious lady, and
both rendered all the service they could to the Poor Clares as
teachers. Their diiector soon advised them to open a school by
themselves, which they did ; and their rising institute received an
accession in another Philadelphia lady, who brought a small for-
tune. It was employed partly in acquiring a wooden house, tho
site of which is still embraced in the convent grounds. Father
Neale, on becoming coadjutor, continued to reside at Georgetown,
where he bestowed on his spiritual daughters the most active so-
licitude. The holy prelate incessantly offered his prayers to God
to know to what rule it was most suitable to bind the new society.
He had a great predilection for the Visitation, founded by St.
Fi'ancis of Sales, and a circuinstan(;o convinced both him and
Miss Lalor that in this he followed the designs of God. Among
some old books' belonging to the Poor Clares, they fomid the
complete text of the Rules and Constitution of the Visitation,
although the poor sisters were wholly unaware that they had ever
possessed the volume. Bishop Neale failed, however, in his en-
deavors to obtain the aid of some nuns from Europe in order to
form his American novices to the rule of St. Frances de Chantal.
Many Catholics blamed the project of establishing a nev.' religious
community in the United States, fearing to excite the fanaticism
of the Protestants. Pishop Carroll advised Miss Lalor and her
companions to join the Carmelites of Port Tobacco. On the
other hand, a wealthy lady offered to go to Ireland at her own
expense, and bring out nuns, if Bishop Neale would decide in
favor of the Ursulines. The zeidous coadjutor, however, refused

TIIK CATHOLIC CIIUUCH

J 1

1 ,11

I'!:

these offers, believing tlint the institute of the ^'isitation was best
adapted to the wants of the CathoHcs in the United States.

We liave stated that Bishop Neale had bought the Chirist
convent on their departure for Europe in 1806. lie immediately
installed the "Pious Ladies" there (for by that name the future
Visitation Nuns were known in Georgetown), and by deed of
Juno 9, 1808, confirmed June 9, 1812, transferred the property
to Alice Lalor, Maria McDormott, and Mary Neale.

In 1814 the sisters numbered thirteen, and their fervor induced
their holy director to permit them to take simple vows to be re-
newed every year.

Up to this time Bishop Neale had been the only Suj)orior of
the community, but he deemed it proper to invest one of the
sisters with authority over her companions, and Miss Lalor was
called to the important post.

Such was the origin of the Visitation nuns in the United
States : nor is it without striking points of resemblance to its
foundation in Europe. The euergy and perseverance of ]3ishop
Neale recall the pious efforts of St. Francis of Sales, for the same
lioly enterprise. In both cases a bishop gave the first impulse ;
in both hemispheres an isolated lady lays the first founc tion,
undeterred by any obstacle ; and if in Europe the Visitation ^oon
opened its convents in twenty diftereut spots in France, so in
America the Mother house at Georgetown has now branches of
the order at Baltimore, Mobile, St. Louis, Washington, lirooklyn,
and Wheeling; and, in these various convents, now numbers over
three Imndi-ed nuns. But it was not without new and severe tri-
als that Alice Lalor's house acquired this remarkable development,
as we shall see in the sequel.

The nine convents which now exist in the United States, all,
or nearly all, filiations of the Georgetown convent, have boarding-
schools or day schools for girls of the higher as well as of the
poorer class. The education received in their schools is remark-

IN THE UNITED STATES.

ably good, and the work of Miss Alice Lalor is an immense ben-
efit to America.*

The same is true of that to which Mrs. Setou, the foundress of
the Sisters of Charity in the United States, devoted herself ; and
if Miss Lalor reminds us of a St. Frances de Chantal, Mrs. Seton
will frequently recall the remembrance of Madame Le Gras, the
pious instrument of St. Vincent de Paul. Elizabeth Bay ley was
born at New York, on the 28th of August, 1774, and at the age
of twenty married a respectable merchant named William Seton,
of a Scotch family, whose chief is now Lord Winton. Like her
parents and husband, she belonged to the Episcopal Church ; but
she nurtured much piety amid her Protestantism, and so merited,
that God gave her the grace of embracing the truth. A voyage
undertaken under sad auspices, led to her conversion. Mr. Seton's
health, broken by cares arising out of the mercantile difficulties
of the day, induced his physicians to order him to Italy ; but it
was ioo late. Soon after reaching Pisa, in 1803, he expired,
leaving his widow to provide for five young children. In her
misfortune and isolation, in a foreign land, Mrs. Seton found a
Providence in the family of the brothers, Philip and Anthony
Filicci, two Leghorn merchants, who had taken a deep interest
in her. Not satisfied with welcoming her to their roof, the
Messrs. Filicci were more sensible to the wants of her sou' than
to the grief of her heart, and the virtues of the desolate widow
inspired an ardent desire to behold her a Catholic. Mrs. Seton
was not disinclined, and, indeed, whether at Pisa or Florence, felt

* On the 6tli June, 1610, Madame de C'hantnl aud her companions, under
the direction of St: Francis of Sales, founded the order of the Visitation of
our Lady, at Annec', ju Savoy. The Constitutions were approved by Pope
Urban VIII., 1626. Tiio name of "Visitation" was at first given by the
Bishop of Geneva to a congregation of Hermits of the Visitation, founded in
1608 on Mount Vooron, in Ci'amblais, to visit the ancient sanctuary dedi-
cated to the Blessed Virgin on that mountain, and which had been long
vouerated in the country.

I .

THE CATHOLIC CHUKUH

li- h)^

il'< )

i'l ■

i ' I

lil^

ever attracted to the chiirclies. The two brothers accordingly
undertook to instruct her, with a zeal beyond all praise, and the
collection still preserved of their letters and reli<riou3 treatises
composed to clear the doubts of Mrs. Seton, give the highest idet
of the merit ol' these honorable merchants. Mrs. Seton had
brought with her to Italy only her eldest daughter; she war
therefore anxious to return to her other children, and Anthony
Filicci was devoteo enough to embark with her, to continue th«
work of so desirable a conversion. On arrixnng at New York,
Mrs. Setou frankly avowed her design to her family, but met a
formidable opposition. They appealed to her interest, aftection,
self-love, to shame her of a creed professed at New York only,
they said, by " low Ii'ish." This did not suffice ; they j)laced
near her the Rev. John Henry Ilcbart, afterwards Protestant
Bishop of New York, and that gentleman undertook to show her
the errors of the Catholic religion. But Mrs. Setou sought other
counsels from the Archbishop of Baltimore, and the distinguished
clergymen, the Abbes Cheverus and Matignon, who had sought
a refuge in Ameiica. At last, regardless of all human considera-
tions, Mrs. Seton made her abjuration on the 14th of March, 1805,
in St. Peter's church, the first, and long the only Catholic church
in the State of New Yoik.

This noble step placed the courageous woman under her fami-
ly's ban; and she found herself abandoned by her wealthy rela-
tives. To shield her children from want, Mrs. Seton opened a
school at New York ; but she was aided especially by the chari-
table care of the two Filicci ; and as long as she lived, she re-
ceived from these generous Italians an annual pension of about
six hundred dollars, not including more considerable donations
whenever she asked them, for her oi^phans and patients. In 1808
Mr. Dubourg, afterwards Bishop of Montauban, and then Presi-
dent of St. Mary's College, Baltimore, having become acquainted
with Mrs. Seton, induced her to go to Baltimore and open a

IN THE UNITED STATEE.

school for girls, on a lot which the Sulpitians put at her disix)s?jl.
These occupations did not, however, fill up the zeal of the young
widow : she longed to consecrate her life to God, and the assist-
ance of the poor. Unfortunately, she had l o resources to found
a religious establishment, when a young convert, Mr. Samuel
Cooper,* who was studying for the priesthood at Baltimore,
informed Mr. Dubourg of his resolution to employ his fortune in
good works. This coincidence of views seem to indicate the
designs of P'-ovidence ; and with the approbation of Bishop Car-
roll, some land was purchased near Emmitsburg, in Maryland,
and buildings begim for a convent of Sisters of Charity. Mrs.
Seton was already certfun of four associates, and they took the
religious habit together, at Emmitsburg, on the 1st of January,
1809. Mr. Dubourg immediately endeavored to procure from
France the Rules and Constitution of the Sisters of St, Vincent of
l\iul, in order to give them to his new community. Mrs. Seton
also desired that some Sisters of Charity should come over from
PVance, to instruct them in their duties, and the spirit of their

* Samuel Cooper, born in Virginia, of Trotestant parents, at first fol-
lowed the sen, and visited various parts of the globe. Having fallen dan-
gerously ill at Paris, ho began to reflect on the truths of faith, and after
several years of study, he embraced Catholicity, in the fall of 1807, at
rhiladeli)hia, during a visit of Bishop Carroll to that city. He entered the
Seminary at Baltimore in September, 180S, then went to Italy, was ordained
priest at Baltimore, August 15, 1820, and became pastor of the congregation
a* Emmitsburg. He remained there only nine months, and then exercised
the holy miniritry in Sout'i Carolina. He subsequently made a pilgrinuigo
to the Holy Land, was employed in various stations in the dioceses of Bal-
timore and Philadelphia, and in 1822 returned to France on account of his
health. The friendship with which Archbishop Cheverus honored him,
induced him to make Bordeaux his residence. He attended the illustrious
Cardinal on his death-bed, and departed this life himself, at Bordeaux, on
the 16th of December, 18-io, reduced almost to indigence by his inexhaust-
ible charities. He eft'ectcd nun^.erous conversions at Bordeaux : among
others, that of Mr. Strobel, the American Consul, who is now a priest in
the diocese of Philadelphia.— White's Life of Mrs. Seton, 246, 505. liist
of Priests ordained at Baltimore.

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THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

order. Tlie Abbe Flaget, about sailiug for France, was intrusted
with the negotiation, and found the mother house at Paris much
disposed to welcome with open arms the Sisters of Emmitsburg.
Sister Mary Byseray repaired to Bordeaux in 1810, in order to
sail to Baltimore ; but the imperial government threw obstacles
in her way, and refused the necessary passports. Mrs. Seton^s
community was, no sxiitheless, increasing ; in 1812 it numbered
twenty Sisters, and nt this period elections were first held for the
olficos in the house. The Superiorship naturally devolved on the
venerable foun ;• , .s, and she filled it till her death with equal
mildness and lii .iness. In 1814, a colony of the Sisters of Em-
mitsburg went to i adelphia, to take charge of the Orphan
Asylum. In 1817, the Bishop of New York invited them also to
that city, to gather the Catholic oi-phans. The mother house
ot St. Joseph's, Emmitsburg, contained the novitiate, and a
boarding-school for girls, which soon became very flourishing.

All the members of Mrs. Seton's family were not equally hostile
to her new state. Two of her sisters-in-law. Misses Cecilia and
Heni'ietta Seton, proceeded to Emmitsburg, drawn, they believed,
by the desire of seeing their relative, and breathing the country
tiir. But they were soon to be enlightened by grace, and by the
example of Mrs. Seton's sanctity, and not only embraced the true
faith, but, undeterred by the poverty and privations of a new
establishment, both took the veil as novices at St. Joseph's.
Their faith was soon rewarded, and both exj^ired in the course
of the year 1810. Mrs. Seton had also the affliction of closing
the eyes of two of her daughters, the eldest, Annina, who had
also taken the habit as a Sister of Charity, and who died piously
in 1812, at the age of seventeen; the youngest, Rebecca, who
filso aspired after the moment when she might vow herself to
God and the poor, and wlio yielded up her fair soul in 1816, at
the age of fourteen. Uuman sorrows, therefore, were not with-
held from Mrs. Seton ; but she had the religious consolation of

IN THE UNITED. STATE-3.

seeing her prayers heard, in the convcision of several nionibcrs

of her family. She died heisolf, on the 4th of January, 1821, at

the age of forty-seven ; and her prayers for her kindred are,

doubtless, still more ])owerful with the Almighty, since she sees

him face to face. Her nephew, James Roosevelt Bayley, at first au

Episcopalian minister, then, at the sacrifice of wealth and fortune,

a Catholic priest, is now Bishop of Newark ; her godchild, the

daughter of Bishop Hobart, and wife of Dr. Ives, lately Protestant

Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina, followed her husband's

example, and recently became, at Rome, a convert to the true

faith.*

The third daughter of the holy widow, Miss Catha^ne Seton,

took the veil at New York in April, 1849, in the Order of the
Sisters of Mercy, and recalls by her virtues the example of her
pious mother.

On Mother Seton's death her community numbered fifty. The
Sisters of Charity of Emmitsburg liave constantly increased, and
four hundred and fifty sisters now occupy in the United States
and the British Provinces over forty establishments, orphan asy-
lums, hospitals, boarding-schools, or residences. Except those in
New York, New Jersey, and Nova Scotia, who still adhere to the
dress and rules of Mother Seton, tlie Sisters of Charity in the
United States have recently formed a union with those in Franco,
and on the 25th of March, 1850, assumed the habit worn by the
French Sisters, renewing their vows according to the formula
adopted in the Society of St. Vincent of Paul. The Emmitsburg
community forms a province of the order, with an ecclesiastic as
Superior, and a visiting Superioress. Those in New York form a
distinct body, approved by the Holy See, and have a mother-
house and novitiate at Mount St. Vincent's, near Harlem. They

^' Life of Mrs. Eliza A. Seton, by the Rev. Charles I. White. New York,
1853. Memoirs of Mrs. S****, written by licrMclf. Elizabethtown, 1819 :
published without the authority of Mrs. Seton.

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number one hundred and seventy-eight, and are scattered in over
twenty hospitals, asyhims, and schools for rich and poor.*

These communities are not inferior in zeal and charity to the
Sisters of Charity in France or elsewhere, and have of' .n been the
theme of Protestant eulogy .f

The Bishop of Baltimore seconded with all his efforts the
foundation of these pious communities, and frequently visited
Emmitsburg on important solemnities, the taking of the habit, re-
newal of vows, or consecration of chapels.

In his life, we will not omit one fact which has long since led
to much discussion. In 1803, Jerome Bonaparte, a brother of
Napoleon, came to the United States, in a French frigate, and
spent some time here. Meeting Miss Patterson, a Protestant
lady, in Baltimore, he became greatly attached to her, and asked
her hand in marriage. A day was fixed, but it was deemed pru-
dent to delay it for two months, and then Bishop Carroll himself
performed the ceremony.

On Jerome's return to France the wrath of the emperor burst
upon him and his wife, and tJie latter was compelled to return to
Maryland. A son was the issue of this marriage, and. is really
the lawful heir of Jerome. Napoleon saw this and sought to an-
nul the marriage. He accordingly applied to Pope Pius VII. on
the 24th of May, 1805. "By our laws," says he, "the marriage
is null. A Spanish priest so far forgot his duties as to pronounce
the benediction. I desire from your holiness a bull annullinp; the
marriage. It is important for France that there should not be a
Protestr.nt young woman so near my person."

Several of these statements were untrue, but the Pontiff was

* The Sisters of Charity in Kentucky are of a different foundation, as wo
shall see. The Sisters of Providence at Burlinpton arc also Sisters of Cliarity.

i The community of Sisters ol ZJharity, servants of the sick poor, were
founded at Paris in 1633 by Madame Le Gras and by St. Vincent of Paul. It
now comprises over nine hundred Sisters in six hundred establishments.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

not to bo deceived. In his reply on •-« 23d of June, \\e Pontiff
examines cand discusses, each in its tuiu, the several causes for
nullity put forward by the emperor. He refutes them all, and
declares that none of them can invalidate the marriage, and con-
cludes : " Wo may not depart from the laws of the Church, by
pronouncing the invalidity of a marriage whi(.'h, aco .iul . to the
declaration of God, no human power can dissolve. Were wo to
usurp an authority which is not ours, we should render oiu'selves
guilty of a most abomina^ ' 3 abuse of our sacied nunistry before
the tribunal of God ai.'. the whole Church."

In spite of this decided answer Napoleon returned to the point,
and plied entreaties, menaces, and commands, but all in vain ;
and if the marriage was ever declared null, or another performed,
it was, bv the Pontiff's decision, all illegal.*

Bishop Carroll had, moreover, the consolation of seeing the
number of Catholics increased considerably by inimigrntion from
Europe, and also by conversions. Every priest to whom he coukl
assign a post immediately beheld a Catholic population sprirg up
around him, which would have continued to live aloo^' %>m the
practice of religious duties as long as it had no priest net: to bring
them to mind. In 1 806 the prelate laid the corner-stone oi three
churches in Baltimore alone. In 1808 he counted in nis diocese
sixty-eight prie-ts and eighty churches, and the progress of reli-
gion made him urgently request at Rome the division of the
United States into several bishopncs. Pope Pius VII. yielded to
the desires of the venerable founder of the American biprarchv,
and by a Brief of April 8th, 1808, Baltimore was raised to the
rank of a Metropolitan See, and four sufiVagan bishoprics were
erected at New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and BardstO' i. On
the recommendation of Bishop Carroll, the Abbe Cheverus was
nanu'd to the See of Boston, and the Abbe Fhiffot to that o!

See articlo in Freeman's Journal, Sei>t.. U, 1852. Nape leor ^^ynnrity, p. 451.

THE CATIIOIlvJ CIIL ilCIl

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B.'udstown. Both had, for ovov twelve yoars, evangelized the
districts over which they were called hy the Supreme Poiititt' to
exercise episcopal jurisdiction. The Kev. Michael Egan, ot the
Order of St. Francis, was appointed to the See of Philadelphia,
and Father Luke Concanen, of the Oi'der of St. Dominic, to that
of Nev/ York. The latter resided at Rome, and held the posts of
Trior of St. Cleniont's and Librarian of the Minerva. He took a
lively interest in the American missions, and it was at his sugges-
tion that a Dominican convent was founded in Kentucky in 1805.
lie had already refused a mitre in Ireland, but he could not re-
sist the orders of the Sovereign Pontiti", who sent him as a mis-
sionary to the New World ; and he accordingly received episcopal
consecration at Rome on the 24th of April, 1808, at the hands of
Cardinal Antonelli, Prefect of the Propaganda.

The new bishop travelled at once t > Leghorn, and subsequently
to Naples, where he hoped to find a \ ers«il bound to the L^nited
States. lie bore the pallium foi: Archbishop Carroll and the
bulls of institution for the three new lishops. The French au-
thorities, then in possession of Naples, opposed his departure, and
detained him as a prisoner, although he had paid his passage.
The pretext of these vexations was that Bishop Concanen was a
British subject. The prelate could not escape the rigors of the
police, and died suddenly in July, 1810, poisoned, it Avould seem,
by persons who wished to get jwssession of his effects and the
sacred vessels which it was known he had with him.*

This premature death was a severe blow to the Church in
America, and caused the utmost gnef, as new evils menaced the
Vicar of Christ liim.self. When Pius VII. decreed the creation of
the Archbishopric of Baltimore, a French anny occupied Rome ;
not, as now, to befriend and protect, but to seize the Papal States
and extort from the Supreme Pontiff concessions incompatible

* Sketch of the History of the Catholic Church in New York, by the Kev.
J. R. Biiyley, New York, 1853, p, 53.

IN THE IMTKl) STATKS.

Avitli the existonco '^f tlie Cluirch. In spite of the diflhulties of
tlie times, tlie Holy Father was organizino- the Episcopate iu
Anieiica at the very moment vvlien tlie tr(K)p.s of Ge' "• il Miollis
menaced him ill his pahice. But when the new Bi,,,, ' New
York died at Naples, I'ius VII. was no longer at Ronr i ide
for the vacancy, or see that the bnlls »jf the other bi , ■.•!- tied

then" destination, llo himself had been dragged oti I ho

Quirinal on the night of the 0th of July, 1809, by General Ra-
det's gendarmes, and carried as a prisoner fii'st to Grenoble and
Avignon, then to Savona. Archbishop Carroll and his clergy
immediately consulted as to means of communication with the
persecuted Pontift', and the steps to be taken to avuid being de-
ceive .1 by any pretended letters. Owing to these delays, the bulls
of April 8, 1808, reached Baltimore only in Se2)teinber, 1810,
and then by the way of Lisbon. They were immediately put iu
execution. Bishop Egau, first Bishop of Philadelphia, was conse-
crated on the 28th of October; Bishop Cheverus, first Bishop of
]>oston, on the 1st of November ; and finally, l^ishop Flaget re-
ceived episcopal consecration on the 4th of November, 1810.
At this last ceremony Bishop Cheverus delivered the sermon, and
eloquently addressed Archbishop Carroll as the Elias of the New
Law, the father of the clergy, the guide of the chariot of Israel in
the New AVorld : " Pater mi. Pater mi, currus Israel et auiiga
ejus." He extolled the merits of the Society of St. Sulpice, to
whicli Bishop Flaget belonged, citing the various testimonies
given in its honor at difterent times by the assemblies of the
clergy of France, and the phrase which fell from the lips of Fene-
lon on his death-bed, " at that moment when man no longer flat-
ters ;" " I know nothing more venerable or more apostolical than
the Congregation of St. Sulpice."

The Archbisho}) of Baltimore might now repose in his glorious
age, and await with security the moment when God should call
him to the reward of his labors, lie had commenced the miu-

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Sciences
Corporation

33 WEST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

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TUE CATHOLIC CHURCH

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istry iu Aineiica when Catliolicity was persecuted there, and a
few poor missionaries alone shared the toils and perils of the apos-
tlcship. lie now beheld the United States an ecclesiastical pro-
vince, and in his .own diocese he had established a seminary,
colleges, and convents; had created religious vocations and
founded a national clergy. Louisiana, with its Episcopal See, its
convent and clergy, had also been added to the United States,
and was now confided to one of his clergy as its prelate.

Yet the trials of the Church in Europe, the prolonged imprison-
ment of Pius VII., filled with bitterness the last years of the holy
and aged prelate. Archbishop Carroll lived long enough to see
peace restored to the Church ; and one of the first acts of the
Holy Father, on returning to Rome in 1814, was to name to the
See of New York, vacant since the death of Bishop Concanen,
Father John Connolly, of the Order of St. Dominic, Prior of St.
Clement's. His promotion completed the hierarchy of the United
States. Soon after, the patriarch of that church, humbly begging
to be laid on the ground to die, expired on the 3d of December,
1815, at the age of eighty, and his death was lamented, not only
by Catholics, but also by the Protestants, who respected and ad-
mired the archbishop, and mourned his death as a public loss.

In person. Archbishop Carroll was commanding and dignified,.
His voice was feeble, and he was accordingly less fitted for the
pulpit; but his discourses are models of unction and classical taste.
He was a profound theologian and scholar, and in conversation
possessed unusual charm and elegance. As a prelate he was
eminent for learning, mildness, yet a strict exactness in the ru-
brics and usages of the Church. His style, terse and elegant, was
generally admired ; but of his works, we have only his contro-
versy with Wharton, his Journal, and some discourses given in
Brent's Life and elsewhere.

1 i !'

iiy

IK TUE UNITED STATES.

CHAPTER VIII.

DIOCESE OF BALTIMORE — (1815-1828).

Most Eev. Leonard Neale, second Archbisliop — Most Rev. Ambrose Mar^chal, third
Archbishop — Difficulties of bis administration— Progress of Catholicity — Bishops ap-
pointed for New Orleans, Charleston, Richmond, und Cincinnati— Labors of the Sul-
pitians— Death of Archbishop Marechal.

On the death of the first Archbishop of Baltimore in 1815, the
United States contained only eighty-five priests, and of this num-
ber forty-six were in the Metropolitan diocese.* Archbishop
Leonard Neale was almost seventy years old when he was left
alone, burdened with the Episcopacy, and painful infirmities de-
prived him of the strength Avhich he would have needed for his
high functions. We have recounted the apostolic labors of the
missionary and coadjutor. After braving the climate of Guiana
and the yellow fever of Philadelphia, Bishop Neale was to bear
in his glorious old age the marks of his toil, and he sought re-
pose for his last days near the monastery of the Visitation, which
he had founded at Georgetown. Yet when his health permitted,
and on solemn occasions, he appeared at Baltimore, and devoted
himself with constant care to the administration of his vast dio-
cese.

On the 19th of April, 1816, the American Church met with a
severe loss in the death of the Rev. Francis Nagot, whose name is
identified with the Catholic Church in the United States, and
whom St. Sulpice will ever revere as one of her most distinguished
men. Of liis anival and labors in founding the seminary and

* MSfe. of the late Bishop Brute of Vincennes.

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THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

college at Baltimore we have already spoken. He was born at
Tours on the 19th of April, 1734, and after a careful education
at the hands of the Jesuit Fathers, entered the Congregation of
St. Sulpice, and for a time taught divinity at Nantes. Ill health
compelled his return to Paris, where he directed the Little and
subsequently the Great or Theological Seminary. His time was
devoted not merely to the duties, but also to the exercise of good
works. In America he formed the noblest of our early clergy,
and labored zealously among the French Catholics. A paralytic
attack and subsequent infirmities compelled him in 1810 to re-
sign his post as Superior, a step which he had long sought to
take. Eminent as a confessor and a preacher, he was a model of
poverty and humility. As a writer, he was the author of the
well-known " Tableau General des principales conversions," and
of a Life of Mr. Olier, the venerable founder of St. Sulpice, as well
as of a French translation of the Catholic Christian, Butler's
Feasts and Fasts, and many of Bishop Hay's excellent works,
which, as is usual with the followers of Mr. Olier, all appeared
anonymously.*

The death of this aged and holy clergyman wai-ned the
archbishop to consolidate the gi'eat work of his life, and Dr.
Neale, immediately on his accession, had presented to the
Sovereign Pontiff a petition requesting power to establish a
monastery of the Visitation at Georgetown, enjoying all the
rights and privileges of the religious houses of the Instit'.ite.
Pius VII. approved the motives of this petition in 1816, and
the venerable archbishop had thus the consolation before dying
of instituting the Sisters at Georgetown as a regular community
of the order founded by the holy Bishop of Geneva and St. Jane
Frances de Chantal. This crowned his career on earth.

He again proved his paternal attachment to these holy reli-

* Laity's Directory for 1822, p. 129.

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IN TIIK UNITED STATES.

gious, by giving tbeiu as director a priest full of zeal, the Abbe
Cloriviere,* nephew of the celebrated Jesuit of that name, and le&a
known in France as a priest than as a royalist chief under the
name of Limoelan.

Joseph Pierre Picot de Limoelan de Cloriviere belonged to a
noble family in Brittany, was born at Broons, November 4th,
1768, and was a schoolfellow of Chateaubriand. Ho was an offi-
cer in the array of Louis XVL when the revolution broke out.
He embraced with ardor the Vendean cause, was made a Cheva-
lier of St. Louis in 1800, and became a Major-general under
George Cadoudal. Implicated at Paris in the affair of the infer-
nal machine of the 3d Nivose, against the life of the First Consul,
Limoelan escaped only by a kind of miracle from the pursuit of
the police, and after being long concealed in Brittany, he resolved
to emigrate to America. Affianced to a young lady of Versailles,
he wrote to the family before embarking, to ask his intended to
proceed to the United States to celebrate their marriage. The
lady, however, replied that at the Tieriod when Limoelan was in
the greatest danger, she had made a vow of celibacy if her affi-
anced should escape, nnd she courageously sacrificed her most
tender affiections to be faithful to the promise which she had made
to Heaven. The young officer was enlightened in turn by this
example, and he entered the seminary at Baltimore in 1808.f
Ordained in 1812, De Cloriviere was the eighteenth ecclesiastic
■who came from that Sulpitian establishment, which has rendered
such service to the Church in America. Archbishop Carroll, ap-
preciating the consummate prudence and merit of De Cloriviere,

* Tlie Georgetown MSS. say, however, that he was appointed Director by
Archbishop Marechal.

t St. Benve made Limoelan figure in his romance " Vohipte," but so dis-
torted his character and misinterpreted his conduct as to provoke an an-
swer from the family. The young lady to whom he had been betrothed was
Mile. Jenne d' Albert. She did not, however, complete the sacrifice, as he
hrtd done, by consecrating herself to God iu the religious state.

THE CATHOLIC CIIUKCH

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sent him immediately to Charleston to resist the usuipation of
power by the laity in tnat city. The Breton priest displayed no
less energy than conciliation in the most difficnlt circumstances,
and after some years of etlbrt, succeeded in reforming inveterate
abuses. Called then to direct the nuns, he displayed the qualities
essential to his new position, and he became in a measure the
second founder of the Visitation. Before leaving the subject, we
may make our closing remarks on the Order in wliich he took
so lively an interest. In spite of all efforts, the foundation of
Alice Lalor was not shielded from new trials. In 1824 its finan-
cial embarrassments were so great, and the poverty of the com-
munity Avas so extreme, that they came to the sad resolution of
dispersing. But God came to their aid at the very moment when
the Sisters had courageously made up their minds to the sacrifice.
A wealthy Spanish merchant in New York, the late John B. La-
sala, sent two of his daughters to the Visitation school, paying
several years' board in advance. This timely aid enabled them
to await the asgistance which Mr. De Cloriviere's generosity pre-
pared for them. He had ordered his property in Brittany to bo
sold, in order to give the proceeds to the Visitation. The trans-
action met with delay, but he was at last able to carry out his
projects, and he now built, at his own expense, the academy, and
the elegant chapel dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He
also contributed by his donations to the establishment of the free
school for girls.

" The happiness of the Sisters in possessing so good a spiritual
father was not to last. Mr. Cloriviei-e had greatly contributed to
the glory of God, and it now remained for God to glorify him in
his turn. He had placed the community in a flouiishing state,
and had done all in his power to promote its success. He was
attacked with apoplexy, and did not long survive the stroke. He
retained the use of his senses, and requested that they would
buiy him in the middle of the vault, and raise over his body a

IN THE UNITED STATES.

tomb, which \vo\ikl serve, at the burial of tlie Sisters, as a resting-
pUice for the coffin whilst the funeral ceremony was performed.
lie had during life been of service to the Sisters, and wished to
be so even after death."*

Thus died, in 182G, the Rev. Mr. De Cloriviero, leaving a
memory still in veneration,! and in his person expired one of
those holy French priests who may be classed ^mong the found-
ers of the Church in the United States.^

After his death, the Rev. Mr. Wheeler, of Baltimore, became
the spiritual director of the Visitation, a' id ere long he made a
voyage to Europe for the good of that c*^mmunity. The George-
town Sisters, constantly fearing, that they were remiss in the
exact observance of their rule, as tanght by St. Francis de Sales
and St. Frances de Chantal, never abandoned the design of having
among them some nuns full of the spirit and traditions of the
communities in France and Savov. Mr. Wheeler succeeded in
his mission, and in August, 182'J, brought back with him Sister
Mary Agatha Langlois, of Mans, Sister Magdalen d'Areges, of

* MSS. of the Visitation, corarannicatcd by the venerable Mother Mary
Augustine Cleary, SuperiorcBs in 1854.

+ By his will he condemned to the flames the voluminous memoirs which
he had written on the events in which he had taken so active a part in
France. This clause was faithfully executed at his death, and in an historical
point of view is to be regretted. Mother Cleary recollects that Mr. De Clo-
rividre showed her the bundles containing the memoirs, telling her that at
the end of every year ho scaled the account of the year, and never opened it
again ; and he added that they contained much of interest both to history
and to religion.

X Bishop England's Works, iii. 253. Peter Joseph Picot de Cloriviere,
the uncle of the former, was born at St. Malo in 1735, and entered the novi-
tiate of the Society of Jesus in 1756, was detained a prisoner by Napoleon
from 1804 to 1809, was Superior of the Jesuits on the re-establishment of
the Society in 1814, and died at Paris in 1824. In 1790 and 1809, Bishop
Carroll, who was very intimately connected with Father De Cloriviero,
pressed him to come to America, but the Father thought that he could do
more good in France and in Paris itself, even during the Keign of Terror.
From the similarity of names, we may infer that the nephew was a godson
of the uncle.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

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Fribourg, and Sister Mary Regis Mordant, of Valence. These
three nuns remained three years at Georgetown, and then re-
turned to France, seeing by the religious spirit reigning in tlio
community, and by the exact observance of the rules, that their
presence was no longer necessary.

On the 9th of September, 1846, the nuns had the affliction of
losing their venerable foundress, known in religion under the
name of Mary Theresa.

" When she was informed that the doctor judged her in danger
of death, she with a heavenly expression exclaimed, ' Glory be to
God !' She had no other wish than that the will of God should
be accomplished, and concluding that the information implied the
Divine will, she rejoiced at the news. The good odor of edifica-
tion she had invariably diffused around her became nov/ stronger.
It was with sentiments of peculiar veneration the Sisters ap-
proached her bedside. To dwell upon her virtues would be to
make the eulogy of virtue. Suffice it then to say that, like the
aurora, they increased till they reached meridian splendor. Her
pure spirit was freed from the prison of the body to wing its flight
to the realms above. May our death be like to hers."*

The Order of the Visitation now comprises nine houses in the
United States, all founded directly by the mother house at
Georgetown, except those at Wheeling and Keokuk. In these
they have day and boarding schools for young ladies, as well as
day-schools for the poor. The education received in their insti-
tutions is remarkably good, and the foundation of Miss Lalor has
been an immense service to America.

We have thus followed to our times this glory of Archbishop
Neale. Foreseeing his approaching end, that holy prelate had in

vm-

* We are indebted for these precious details to manuscripts furnished us
by the venerable Mother Mary Augustine Cleary, to whom we hero express
our gratitude for the interest she lias taken in our labors and the aid which
Bhe has afforded.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

lop
in

•■»

1815 petitioned the Soveroigu rontifi'to associate to him in the
a(hniiiiatration of his diocese Bishop Cheverus of Boston, with a
right of succession to the See of Baltimore. Pius VII. consented,
but wished first to know how he was to rephicc Bishop Cheverus
at Boston. Archbishop Neale invited the hitter to BaUimore to
confer with him on tlie intentions of the Holy Father, but Bishop
Ciieverus no sooner discovered tlie motive than he begged to be
left at Boston. He strongly urged the archbishop to take in
preference a coadjutor, and named several Jesuits and Mr. Marc-
chal, a priest of St. Sulpice. He also wrote on the subject to tho
Congregation " de propaganda fide :"

" The Church of Boston has become to me a beloved spouse,
and I have never had a thought of abandoning her. It is tho
universal belief, as Avell as my own, that the Catholic religion
would suffer great injury by my removal and the appointment of
a new bishop, who would be unacquainted with and unknown to
the diocese, however superior his merits to mine. Baltimore has
many priests worthier than I am (I say it from the bottom of my
soul and before God), especially among the Jesuit Fathers, whoso
excellent qualities, whose piety, zeal, and indefatigable labors are
beyond all praise. The seminary of Baltimore also offers men of
truly apostolical character, two of whom have already been raised
to the Episcopacy, and are the delight and glory of the Church
in the United States. I earnestly pray, therefore, that some one
more worthy than myself may be chosen for the coadjutorship of
Baltimore."*

Archbishop Neale at last yielded to his friend's wishes, and on
the refusal of several Jesuits, he asked the Holy See to appoint
Mr. Marechal as his coadjutor. As soon as Bishop Cheverus
knew this decision he wrote to Rome, asking to remain at Boston.

* Life of Cardinal Cheverus, by the Eev. J, Huen Dubourg. Phil. 1839 •
p. 106. This is translated by Robert Walsh, Esq. ; but the real author is the
Rev. Mr. Humon, a Sulpitian, as appears by Inter French editions.

100

THE CATHOLIC CIIUKCII

11 i

"1 shall rejoice to seo Mr. Murochul pcrfonuinj:^ tlio Episcopal
functions at Baltimore, where he and his brethren of St. Sulpico
have Wen the masters and models of the clergy, and have con-
ciliated nniversal I'erjard."

Pius VJr. approved the new arrangement, and by a brief of
July 24, 1817, he api)ointed Mr. Ambrose Marochal coadjutor to
the Archbishop of Baltimore, with the title of liishop of Stauro-
polis. But before the date even of the brief. Archbishop Nealo
liad sunk under liis infirmities. He died at Georgetown, on tho
15th of June, 1817, and his mortal remains were laid in tho con-
vent chapel of tlio Visitation, where they still remain. " Thus,"
says his biographer, "thus in death was ho placed where his
aftections were strongest in life ; and thus, in the last honors to
his mortal remains, was preserved a parallel to the last sad tiibuto
to St. Francis of Sales. The body of Archbishop Neale sleeps
imder the chapel of the convent founded by him in America;
that of St. Francis under tho church of tho convent which he
founded in Europe. Annecy has her saint ; so may we hope that
Georgetown has hers."*

Before his death Archbishop Neale had the satisfaction of
learning that a bishop had been consecrated for New Orleans, and
that the reorganization of that diocese presaged better days for
the Church in the United States. A See had been founded in
1793 at the capital of Louisiana, then a Spanish province, and
the diocese had been intrusted to the Rt. Rev. Luis Penalver y
Cardenas, who administered it from 1795 to 1801 ; but as that
colony changed masters three times in three yea's, great disorders
ensued in the ecclesiastical administration, and Archbishop Car-
roll, canonically intrusted with the administration of the vacant
See, could aftbrd only an imperfect remedy to the evils of that
church. The captivity of the Holy Father frustrated all hopes oi

* Notice on tho MostEev. Leonard Neale, by M. C. Jenkins, in the Oath
olic Magazine for 1844, p. 512.

(it

IN THE UNITED STATES.

101

tft

nny defiiiilivo arrangement, and tlion what authority could ho
exorcised hy the bishojjs uf iWiUiuiuro over a city a thousand
•jnilert off? TliG Ahho Duboin-g, a priest of Ht. Sulpico at JJalti-
niore, had been appointed in 1812 administrator of New Orleans.
At last the pacitioation of the Church and of Europe, in 1816, per-
mitted the Holy Father to regulate the affairs of that distant Sec,
and Mr. Dubourg was consecrated ]>ishop of New Orleans on (ho
28th of September, 1815, at the capital of the Christian world.*

The bulls appointing Archbishop Maruchal did not reach Bal-
timoro till the 10th of November, 1817, five months after tho
death of his venerable predecessor, and ho was consecrated on tho
14th of December following, by Bishop Chevcrus of Boston.
Ambrose Marechal, thus raised to the primacy of the American
Church, was born at Ingi-e, near Orleans, in l7G8.f When lio
had completed his classical course, he felt a vocation for the eccle-
siastical state, but his family opposed his designs so warmly that
ho at first yielded to their desires, and began the study of law,
intending to practise at tho bar. Tho young advocate soon
found, however, that ho was called to a far different life, and after
liaving shown all duo deference to his family's wishes, at last en-
tered tho Sulpitian Seminary at Orleans. The persecutions of
revolutionary France did not shake his resolution, but he resolved
to depart from a land that martyred its faithful clergy, and ho
embarked at Bordeaux for the United States, with the Abbes
Matignon, Richard, and Ciquard. It was on the very eve of his
embarkation that tho young Abbe Marechal was privately or-
dained, and such were the horrors of those unhappy times, that
lie was even prevented from saying Mass. He celebrated the
Holy Sacrifice for tho first time at J3altimore, where he arrivei

ICath

* Life of tho Rt. Rev. B. J. FIngct, hy M. J. Spalding, i3i;-.hop of Loiii;?-
ville. Louisville, 1852, p. 166.

t Wemlopt the date given in American hiogmphica of the prelate. Tho
Annals of the Propagation of the Faitii, iv. 22-1, give as the dale Ihcyeur 17b'2.

102

THE CATiroiJC ciirRcii

■m

'i' ■ !

III: '■

>vith his companioiiH on tlio 24tli of .Fimo, 1*702. Tt was Mr
Emery's iiiteiilion to opoti at Hallinum! an acadoniy for niatho-
inatical srionccs, and Mr. Maroclial was thought of as ono of tho
]»roft'ssors ; but this project having hocu ahaiidoncil, tlio yoiuig
priest was suocessivt'ly sent as missionary to St. Mary's county
nnd to IJohomia. In 1799 ho was called to functions more in
harmony with his vocation as a Sulpitian, and became professor
of tlieology at the seminary in Ualtimorc. IIo was soon after
sent to teach philosophy in tho Jesuit collcfgo at Georgijtown, and
tlien returned to Baltimore to continue his courses of theology, in
which he displayed no less science than talent. After some
years, however, the seminary was deprived of tho services of its
cl(.<juent professor. Religious aflairs in Franco having assumed a
brighter aspect, the Superior of St. Sulpico recalled tlio Abbu
Maroclial to aid him in reorganizing and directing several houses
of the Society. Obedience here was easy, as it wafted him back
to his native shores. Mr. Marechal accordingly arrived in Franco
in July, 1803, and was employed with distinction in several oc-
clesiastical institutions, especially at St. Flour, Lyons, and Aix.
Those who studied under him always preserved the deepest ven-
eration, a proof of which exists in tho rich present sent liim by
the priests of Marseilles, when they learned liis elevation to the
Episcopacy. It consists of a superb marble altar, which still
adorns tho cathedral in Baltimore, and which by its inscription
recalls the gratitude and affection of scholars for their master.*

* Tho inscription is :

Hoc Altaro

A Massilicnsibus SacerJotibus

Ambr. Arcliicpo. Bait.

Eorum in Sacra Theologia olim Profcssori

Grato oblatnm

IpbO Deo Salvatori in lionorom ejus Sanctissimaj

Matris

Consccravit die Gla Mali 1821.

Sec sketcli in Calliolic Almanac for 1836. U. S. Catli. Mag. for 1845, p. 82.

IN TUK I'NITEl) STATLfl.

108

p. S2.

Mranwliilo liis Aincricjin tVit'iuls wrote constantly, oxprosHing
regrot for his aUscnco, aiid reminding liiiii of tlu; good ho might
Btill be doing in DaUimoro. When, thcn-foro, the imperial gov-
ernment, in 1812, took from the Sul[)iliana the direction of tho
Scminarirs, the learne<l professor yielded to tlio entreaticH of his
friends, and re-endjarked for the United States, lie at once re-
sumed his old functions at St. Mary's Seminaiy, and was for a
time l*resident of tho (.'oll<>ge. This lifij of study, so akin to his
taste, was not, lnjwover, to last; and in 1810 ho was informed
of his nomination by the Sovereign rontiflf to the see of I'hila-
delphia. In vain did he endeavor to escape these honors : it was
oidy to iiave far greater imposed uj)on him by pontifical authority.
lie alleged the importance of leaving him at his studies, at least
till the completion of a theological work adapted to tho religious
condition of the United States. But the C'hurch chose to employ
his merit in more eminent functions, and Mr. Marcchal consented
to become Archbishop of Ballimore.

The earlier days of his administration were thick sown with
trials of the most painful character. Tho Catholics in the United
States, living amid a Protestant population, and influenced by
the surrounding ideas of independence, have uot always sliovvn
the subordination ever to bo desired towards pastors. The
temporal administration of the churches is the source of constant
collisions ; and the laity, seeing the numner in which the Protest-
ant churches are managed, too frequently usurp powers not their
own. Archbishop Marechal had thus to struggle with a spirit
of insubordination and faction, which threatened to result in an
open schism. In this diflicult position, the prelate displayed that
zeal, that prudence, that devotion to his flock, that firm adherence
to true principles, which have ever characterized great bishops,
and which eventually cliecked tho progress of the disorder, under
which the cause of religion threatened to sink. His pastoral in
1819 showed the extent of the evil and the wisdom of tho remedy.

»:;

^^ '

I I

I !

■4: 1

V '■
i'' i

H:;. ^11

104

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

It laid down Avith preciseiieSvS the reciprocal riglits and duties of
the clergy and laity ; it shows the entire inaptitude of the latter
to interfere in the spiritual govei-nnient of the Church, and points
out to the priests the calamities which would afflict religion, if
they neglected the obligations of their sacerdotal character. It
maintains the exclusive right for the episcopal authority, of ap-
pointing priests to parishes and for other duties, and concludes in
these words : " In the midst of the troubles and j)ersecutions to
which you are now, or may hereafter be exposed, be careful, after
the example of the Saints, dearest brethren, daily to entreat with
fervor your heavenly Father, to take under his sjjecial protection
yourselves, your families, your friends, your pastors, and all tho
Catholics of the United State?. The Church of Christ in this
country is now in affliction. Dissensions and scandals threaten
lo destroy her peace and happiness. As for you, dear brethren,
strive to console her by every possible mark of respect, attach-
ment, obedience, and love ; for though surrounded with difficul-
ties, though even attacked by some unnaturul children, still she
is your mother, your protectress, your guide on earth, and the
organ by which Divine mercy communicates to you the treasure
of His grace, and all the means of salvation.*"

Other obstacles, of a more personal chai-acter, added to the
burdens of the episcopate, in the case of Archbishop Marechal.
Yet, his administration was not without its consolations, not the
least of which was the continued success and permanent establish-
ment of Mount St. Mary's seminary and college. Of this hive
of the American clergy — for it has given the Church two arch-
bishops, eight bishops, and a large proportion of our most zealous
and useful priests — we must now treat.f

The Rev. John Dubois, of whom we shall hereafter speak more
at length,! was stationed, in 1808, at Frederick, and once a

* U. S. Ciitholio Magaziiio for 1845, p. 3(5.
t Metropolitan, \'ol. iv. 410.

X Pages 101, 397.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

105

the

Ichal.

[t the

)lish-

hive

irch-

ilous

11 ore

be a

month celebrated the holy sacrifice in the private chapel of Aloy-
sius Elder, Esq., as his predecessors had done for many years.
The better days, however, now justified the erection of a church,
and the zealous priest began to erect, near Emmetsburg, a church,
on a rising ground, which he named Mount St. Mary's. A church
did not satisfy his zeal, he sought also to found a school, which
should furnish cawdidates for holy orders; and, in all humility,
began his labors, to carry out the idea which he had conceived.
Purchasing a log-hut near the church, he opened his school, in
1808, and having, in the following year, joined the Sulpitians, he
received the pupils of their establishment a*^ Pigeon Hill. His
little log-hut, and a small brick-house in the neighborhood, no
longer sufficed, so that he purchased the present site of the col-
lege, and, erecting suitable buildings, resigned his log-cabin to
Mother Scton, who made it the cradle of her order.

The first college at the mountain was but a row of log-cabins,
themselves the work of several years' toil, for the founder had
but little means. Yet all joined in his labors, and, by their uni-
ted eftbrts, grounds were cleared, gardens and orchards planted,
and roads cut. In spite, however, of these disadvantages, the
well-known ability of Mr. Dubois drew pupils to his rural school,
though the payment in kind often corresponded to the style rather
than to the wants of the establishment. And the school, though
strictly Catholic, increased, so that its ever cheerful and laborious
presiccnt could not, in 1812, have had less than sixty pupils
imder his care. Of his associates in the foundation, none de-
serves a higher praise than one whom Catholics have learned to
style the sainted Brute, whose name is no less indissolubly united
to Mount St. Mary's than to Vincennes, of which he died bishop.
Kemoved, for a time, to St. Mary's Seminary, in Baltimore, Mr.
Brute returned to the Mountain in 1818, and, opening the class
of theology, made the establishment a seminary as well as a col-
lege, thus giving it the present form and its present stability

.1! ti

'5 i ' ■ S'

!^i Nil

t^ ;i!

•;.j

106

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

By this time, too, pupils bad become teacbcrs, and the Rev.
liogor Smith, Nicholas Kernoy, Alexius Elder, Geoi'gc Elder,
fDunder of St. Joseph's at Bardstown, and William Byrne, foun-
der of St. Mary's, in the same State ; Cliarles Constantino Pise,
John B. Purcell, now Archbishop of Cincinnati, John Hughes,
now Archbishop of New York, with his former coadjutor, the
Bishop of Albany, all, with many another priest and prelate,
taught, in their younger days, the classes at the Mountain.

Mr. Brute's talents, during the next sixteen years which ho
spent here, availed the institution not oidy as a professor : as a
treasurer, bis method and system extricated it from many pe-
cuniary embarrassments, and placed matters in a secure shape.

So complete had been the success, and so promising were now
their hopes, that Dr. Dubois, soon after the separation from the
Sulpitians, in 1819, resolved to erect a stone edifice for the ac-
commodation of his pnpils. This work Archbishop Marechal ap-
proved and encouraged. Accordingly, in the spring of 1824, a
liandsome building, of three stories high, and ninety-five feet by
forty in extent, was raised on the mountain ; but, just as all were
preparing, at Whitsuntide, to enter, to their grief and regret it
was fired by accident or design, and, in a few hours, nothing re-
mained but a mass of smoking ruins. Undaunted by this disas-
ter, which Doctor Pise has embalmed in our memories in classic
verse,* Dr. Dubois at once began the erection of a new and
grander college. Great were the trials it imposed upon him and
the companions of his labors, but, aided by the generous contri-
butions of the neighbo'"^, and of Catholics in various parts, the
great work was completed, just as the illustrious founder was
called to occupy the see of New York, in 1826.

The Rev. Michael de Burgo Egan, a nephew of the first bishop
of Philadelphia, now became president of his Alma Mater ; but

Metropolitan, Vol. iv. p. 575.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

107

the Rev.
^e Elder,
I'lic, foim-
tine Pise,

Hughes,
jutor, the
I prelate,
lin,

which ho
isor : as a
many pe-

shape.
were now

from the
)r the ac-
echal ap-
■ 1824, a

c feet by
5 all were

regret it
thinix re'
lis disas-

n classic

ew and

liiii and
contri-

irts, the

ler was

t bisliop
er; but

liis health was feeble, and could not second his piety aud zeal. A
voyage to Europe failed to restore him, aud he died at Marseilles,
leaving the Society of the Blessed Virgin, which he founded, to
he the monument of his gentle virtue.

The present eminent Archbisliop of Cincinnati, the Most Rev.
John B. Purcell, was the next president, and to his exertions it
owes no little of its present distinction. He obtained for the col-
lege a charter of incorporation from the Legislature, aud, import-
ing costly apparatus, established all that was needed — classes of
the natural sciences. The commencements of the institution,
which date from this period, are always attended with interest,
and prove the ability with which it has been directed by the
Rev. Francis B. Jameson, the Rev. Thomas R. Butler, and by its
present president, the Rev. John McCaffrey.*

While the illustrious Dubois was consolidating a work so im-
portant to his diocese, Archbishop Marechal was still more con-
soled by the increase of Catholics, and by the nuftibers whom the
clergy found in sections where they least expected to meet any.

It will not be useless to define here in what this increase of the
Catliolic population consists, of which we must render an account
periodically in each diocese, and which has made it necessary to
multiply the bishops from one to forty in the space of sixty
years. The immigration, chiefly from Ireland, scattering over the
country, presented on all sides little congregations ready for a
pastor. When he came. Catholics, or the children of Catholics
who had almost lost the faith in the absence of religious teachers,
gathered around, and converts came silently dropping in, chiefly,
however, from the more enlightened classes. The mass of the
American people have not been reached. In vain did Thayer
and the Barbers, in early times, and other eminent converts
since, present the faith to their countrymen ; the number of

* The Metropolitan, iv. 410. United States Catliolic Magazine, v. 86.

108

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

•i

•J '■ '

H '

li%

those who listen or examine is extremely small. To save tlie
scattered Cjitholics and their children is, and will be for a time,
the great effort of the limited number of the clergy.

The vast extent of the diocese of Baltimore now called for a
division, and in 1818 the Rev. llobert Browne, an Irish Augusti-
nian, who had been, for many years, a missionary at Augusta, in
the State of Georgia, proceeded to Rome, bearing a i>etition from
the Catholics, soliciting the erection of a new diocese, to comprise
the States of North and South Carolina and Georgia ; for though
few and scattered, the Catholics were so remote from the episco-
pal See, that their interests were unavoidably neglected.

The Holy See examined the question with its usual maturity,
and resolved to erect Virginia into a diocese of which Richmond
should be the episcopal See, and the two Caroliiias and Georgia
into another, the bishop of which should reside at Charleston.
To the latter See the Holy Father appointed the Rev. John Eng-
land, pastor of Brandon, in the diocese of Cork, who was already
favorably known in the United States. Of this diocese, under
his able rule, we shall elsewhere speak. Of the progress of reli-
gion in those States prior to his appointment, a few words will
suffice. Catholic emigrants, at an early day, settled at North
Carolina, and as early as 173*7 are said to have had a priest at
Bathtown, on the Pimlico, around which they lay chiefly.*

At the Revolution, however, these seem to have disapjieared,
and few Catholics could be found in the States where the Catho-
lics, De Kalb and Pulaski, fought and fell.

A French priest accompanied some fugitives from St. Do-
mingo towards the close of the century, and other priests, among
whom we may note the Rev. Dr. O'Gallagher, the opponent of
WhartoD,f and Father Brown, first labored among the other
Catholics.

* Bickaell's Nat. Hist, of N. Carolina. Dublin, 1737. t See p. 374-5.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

109

Do-

Viigiiiia was allotted by the Holy Father to the care of the
Rev. Patrick Kelly, then president of Birchfield College, near
Kilkenny. That prelate was accordingly consecrated and came
to America in 1821. Here he found nothing prepared to receive
him, and Archbishop Marechal opposed to tlic separate adminis-
tration of the newly erected diocese. As the Archbishop had
already written to Rome to urge his views, Dr. Kelly remained
at Norfolk, laboring zealously on the mission, and directing a
school which he had opened. When the Holy See at last as-
sented to the request of the Archbishop of Baltimore, Dr. Kelly,
now appointed to the united sees of Waterford and Lismore, re-
turned to Ireland, and directed the two dioceses till his death, on
the 8th of October, 1829.

The diocese of Richmond, thus erected in 1821, continued to
be administered by the Archbishops of Baltimore for twenty
years, nor did any bishop sit in Richmond till 1841, when the
present Bishop of Wheeling was appointed to the See.

While the extensive diocese of Baltimore was thus subdivi-
ded. Bishop Flaget, of Bardstown, was also soliciting at Rome the
division of his; and by his Bull of June 19th, 1821, Pius VH.
founded the See of Cincinnati, and called to it Father Edward
Fenwick, a Marylander, and long a Dominican missionary in
Kentucky. The new bishop was consecrated by Bishop Flagct,
January 13th, 1822, at St. Rose's Convent, Kentucky; and thus,
at the commencement of 1822, the United States were divided
into nine dioceses, viz. :

1. Baltimork, comprising Maryland and the District of Co-
lumbia.

2. Boston, comprising the six New England States.

3. New York, comprising the State of New York and half of
New Jersey.

4. Philadelphia, compiising Pennsylvania, Delaware, and
half of New Jersey.

lit

* i

f >'.

110

Tl;K CATirOTJO CHURCH

5. Baudstown, comprising Kentucky .ind Tennessee.

G. (yiiAiiLKHTOx, comprising the two CriroHnas and Georgiii.

7. KiciiMONi), comprising the State of Virginia, and admiuis*
tercd by the Archbishop of Baltimore.

8. Cincinnati, comprising Ohio, Michigan, and Northwest
Territory.

9. New Ouleans, comprising Louisiana, Mississi[)|)i, and Mis-
souri.

Archbishop Marechal had the consolation of opening for divine
Avoiship the cathedral of Baltimore, which had been begun by
Archbishop Carroll eighteen years before. On the 31st of May,
1821, this beautiful church was solemnly dedicated, and its IJy-
zantine architecture, though not a model of taste, is not destitute
of grandeur in its proportion. Its situation on the summit of a
]\vramidal hill, on v/hich the houses of the city are built, gives to
I'altimore the aspect of an entirely Catholic city, where the
cathedral towers above all the other monuments, as in our Euro-
pean cities. The archbishop obtained in France numerous pres-
ents, a painting and vestments, with which he adorned the temple
that he had raised. Archbishop Marechal could here dis})lay all
the pomp of our worship, being aided by the Sulpitians of the
seminary, who had preserved all the traditions of the ceremonial,
Nothing is more desirable than thus to surround religion with
the dignity which is its noblest apanage. The poverty of tlie
sanctuary, or their narrow precincts, too often deprives the faith-
fid in the United States of the most imposing solemnities. The
fd)sence of ceremonies likens our churches to the coldness of secta-
rian halls, but the pomp of worship, while it revives the faith of
Catholics, produces a salutary impression on such of our separated
brethren as witness it. Nothing is, then, more desirable than to
see large churches multiplied in the United States, and Arch-
bishop Marechal was one of the first to appreciate the advantage
which religion might derive from them.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

ii:

lay all
of the
nonial,

widi
of tlie
faith-

Tlie
secta-
lith of
arated
lan to
Arch-
ntage

The Society of St. Sulpico, which was initiating the American
dci'gy in the study of theology as well as in the rubrics and cere-
monial, at one time assumed a great development in tlio United
States. At Baltimore they had directed, since 1*791, the seminaiy
and the college of St. Mary's; in 1806, the Abbe Dillet founded,
at Pigeon Hills in Pennsylvania, a college intended to give a re-
ligious education to boys whose piety and qualities seemed to show
a decided vocation for the priesthood. No scholar was received
except on the recommendation of his confessor. In 1809 the
Abb6 Dubois founded, near Emmitsburg, the seminary and college
of Mount St. Mary's, and aftiliated himself to the Society of St.
Sulpice, in order to carry on this double establishment. But in
1819 the Sulpitians resolved to limit their sphere of action, and
Mount St. Mary's ceased to be under their superintendence. They
also suppressed, in 1852, their college of St. Mary's, replaced,
however, by Loyola College, a new institution of the Jesuits. At
the present moment, St. Sulpice directs only two establishments
in the United States — St. Mary's Seminary, which numbers
twenty-three theologians, and the Preparatory Seminary of vSt.
Charles, which contains forty-two scholars. This latter institution
is within a few miles of Baltimore, offering greater advantages
than Pigeon Hills, which it superseded in 1849. These two
houses, as well as the seminary of Montreal, maintain a close
imion with the Society in Paris, and visitors are sent from France
at short intervals,*

Archbishop Marcchal had the consolation of seeing miraculous
<;ures effected in his diocese by the prayers of Prince Alexander

* St. Tlary's Seminary has had only four Superiors since its foundation :
1791, Fruicis Nagot; 1810, John Tessier; 1833, Deluol; 1849, Francis
Lhommo. The Superior is always a Vicar-gcneral. St. Mary's College has
had among its celebrated Presidents — 1804, Dubourg, afterwards Bishop of
New Orleans ; 1818, Brute, afterwards Bishop of Vincennes ; 1829, Eccleston,
afterwards Archbishop of Baltimore ; 1834, Chanche, Bishop of Natchez.
Mount St. Mary's retained Mr. Dubois as President from 1809 to 1826, On

!!f

1 . ■• ' I '

] i

i' i

i (

I i

112

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Ilohenloho, and he inig;lit hope tliat God had regarded will .1
favorable eye the Church iu America, to whicli such favors wero
reserved. On the 10th of March, 1824, Mrs. Anne Mattingly, at
the point of death, given up by physicians, was suddenly cured on
the last day of a novena which she had undertaken in conformity
with the directions of the holy prince. The fame of this extraor-
dinary cure was immense, for it took place at Washington, the
capital of the United States, of which city her brother was mayor
at the time. Her cure was perfect, and she lived thirty years
after it, dying only in 1855.

The miraculous cure of a Visitation nun, at Georgetown, took
place soon after, and these two events, supported by the most au-
thentic and most respectable testimony, exercised a considerable
influence in bringing many Protestants to study the Catholic
dogmas.*

Archbishop Mar6chal went to Rome in the latter part of 1821,
to lay the state of his diocese before the Sovereign Pontiff". In
1826 he visited Canada, whither the interests of religion led him,
for he shrank from no fatigue at the call of duty. But the cruel
pangs of a dropsy in the chest soon condemned him to absolute
repose. lie bore the pains of a long illness with Christian cour-
age, and died on the 29th of January, 1828, in the expectation of
a blessed immortality.

his appointment to the See of New York, the Rev. Deburgo Egnn, an aluin-
nns of the institution, succeeded him. After him, Rev. John Purccll, now
Archbishop of Cincinnati, became President. The seminary and college
are now under the direction of the Rev. John McCaffrey. The seminary
contains fourteen theologians ; the college, one hundred and seventy-:lve
Bcliolars.

* The testimony as to Mrs. Mattingly'a cure takes up fifty pages in tho
third volume of Bishop England's works.

%
■I

IN THE UNITED STATES.

113

CilATTER IX.

aliun-
bll, now
1 college
Iminnry
]ity-:ive

in tho

DIOCESE OF BALTIMOKE — (1828-1820).

Most Rev. Jamos ■WhitfloUl, fourth ArchMsliop of Bnltlinoro— Tlie Oblatcs of St. Frnnces
and the colored Catholics — Tho Associntion for tho Propagntlon of tho Faltli and tho
Leopoldlne Society— First Provincial Council of Baltimore, and a retrospect on pre-
vious synods of the clergy.

As soon as Archbishop Mardchal felt the first symptoms of tho
disease that was to carry him off, he applied to the Holy See for
a coadjutor to succeed him in his important post. The name of
Dr. James Whitfield was the first on tho list of persons which he
submitted to the choice of the Holy Father, and by a brief of the
8th of January, 1828, Leo XII., acceding to the archbishop's re-
quest, appointed Dr. Whitfield coadjutor, with the title of Bishop
of Apollonia, in partibus. The brief did not arrive until after
Archbishop Marechal had expired, and Dr. Whitfield was conse-
crated Archbishop of Baltimore on Whitsunday, the 25th of
May, 1828. The venerable Bishop of Bardstown, Monseigneur
Flaget, was the consecrator, and he was so impressed with tho
importance of his august functions, that on Ascension day he
began a retreat with the archbishop elect, in order to purify his
heart, and raise his soul to God, in preparation for the gi'eat act
he was about to perform. " This Sunday of Pentecost was the
most grand, the moat august, the most honorable day that ever
shone on the Bishop of Bardstown."*

James Whitfield was born at Liverpool, England, on the fid of
November, 17 70, and belonged to a very respectable mercantile
family, who gave him all the advantages of a sound education.

* Life of Bishop Flagct, by M. .1. Spalding, Bishop of Louisville, p. 2G2.

n 1 :

fit; -i

114

THE CATHOLIC CIIURCn

At tlio nm of seventeen ho lost his fivtlier and became the solo
pi'otoctor of his mother.

In oi'der to (lissif)ato her melancholy ho took her to Italy, and
after spending some years thero in commercial aft'airs, young
Whitfield went to France, in order to pass over to Englatid. It
"Nvas just at this moment that Napoleon decreed that every Eng-
lisliman discovered on French soil should bo retained a prisoner.
James Whitfield spent most of the period of hia exile at Lyons,
and there formed an acquaintance with the Abbe Marechal, the
future Archbishop of Baltimore, then Professor of Divinity in the
seminary of St. Irenseus, at Lyons. The young man's piety soon
disposed him to embrace the ecclesiastical state. lie entered the
seminary under the direction of his learned friend, and was soon
distinguished for his ardor as a student and for his solidity of
judgment. He was ordained at Lyons in 1809, and on his
mother's death returned to England, where he was for some time
appointed to the parish of Crosby. When the Abbe Marechal
was raised to the dignity of Archbisliop of Baltimore, he wrote to
his friend, begging him to come and share the cares of a diocese
whQse wants were so great. Mr. Whitfield yielded to the desire
of his old tutor, and he landed in the United States on the 8th of
September, 181 7. lie was at first stationed at St. Peter's Church,
Baltimore, and then became one of the Vicars-general of the dio-
cese. In 1825, by a special indult of the Court of Rome, the
ardibishop solemnly conferred on Mr. Whitfield and two other
eminent clergymen of Baltimore the grade of Doctor of Divinity;
and the ceremony, full of interest for Catholics, was hailed by
them with joy as the commencem'^nt of a faculty of theology in
America. In the same year Archbisliop Marechal approved the
i'<iligious community of the Sisters Oblates of St. Frances, formed
of colored women, for the instruction of children of the African
rnce. Dr. Whitfield took a deep interest in this foundation, and
seconded the effort of Mr. Joubert, a priest of St. Sulpice, who,

•J

IN THE UNITED STATES.

115

tho solo

taly, and
8, young
land. It
ory Eng-
prisoner.
it Lyons,
ichal, the
ity in the
liety soon
itcred the
was soon
ioUdity of
d on his
lomo time
Mart'chal
) wrote to
a diocese
the desire
tho 8th of
8 Church,
■ the dio-
lomo, the
,wo other
Divinity ;
ailed by
eology in
oved tho
!s, formed
e African
ition, and
:)ice, who,

ilungt'd in the doepoHt

Hceing so many little negrosses plunged in tlic (loepoHt ignorance,
HHHOinbled several excellent women of that (ilans to take care of
these children. After long trials, Mr. Jouburt thought that ho
might ask tho arcliMxhop to permit them to take vows. Ap-
proved on the 5th of June, 1825, they were also recognized at
Rome by tlu! Holy See on the 2d of October, 1831, and enjoyed
hU the privileges and indulgences accorded to the Oblates at
Rome. "The Almighty has blessed tho eiforts of tho worthy
Mr. Joubert," wrote Kev. Mr. Odin, in 1834 ; "there are already
twelve of these sisters ; their school is very numerous, piety and
fervor reign among them, and they render great services to reli-
gion."* The community now contains fourteen professed sisters
and three novices; they keep a girls' school, with one hundred
and thirty-five scholars, and a boys' school, with fifty.f This is
but a small development, and tho good to be done among the
blacks would need a very large community. Hut the clergy has
never been able to cope with the work before them, and the va-
rious Archbishops of Baltimore have all deplored their inability
to mulertako the evangelization of the blacks, as they would de-
sire. "IIow distressing it is," wrote Archbishop "Whitfield, in
1832, "to be unable to send missionaries to Virginia, where there
are five liundred thousand negroes ! It is indubitable that had
we missionaries and funds to support them, prodigies would be

* Anniiles de la I'ropanration do la Foi, vii. 167. Letter of Mr. Odin,
Lazarist, now Bishop of Galveston,

t Tlie Oblntes of Komo wero founded by St. Frances do Buxo, born at
Kome in ISSi. Although married, hIio assembled some pious widows and
lioly young women in comnumity, in 1433 ; gave them the rule of St. Beno-
diot, with special constitutions, and solicited ti\e approval of Pop;) Eugene
IV., which was granted. On her husband's death in 1436, Frances entered
the community which she had organized ; slic died there in 1440, and was
canonized by Pope Paul V. in 1603. The Oblates of Koine do not tako
soitMnn vows. Tlieir numbers are generally tilled up from the most distin-
guished classes of society, and many princesses have been members of tho
order, while their sisters in America are taken in tho humblest condition,
kiacli is the equality of tiic great Christian family before God.

f.ll

! J

TIIH CATHOLIC CIIL'KCII

(.1 in this viwt iiinl imlilli'<l (idil. In Mnryljiiid l>l.u;ks aro

tilted ov(M-y (lay, uii*l niuny of tlu'iii mo <^'oimI (!;itholics iiiid

cut (,'liristians. At Haltiiiioro inany aro lVo<|Uent comimiiii-

and tliroo Inindrid or foui' hundred rccoivo the IMessed

unent tho fii'Ht Sumhiy of every montli. It Ih the samo

throughout Maryland, where there are a ^reat many Catholics

ninoiiij the nej^roes."* Some years after, ArchhiHhoj) Kt-cleston,

successor of Arehhishoi) Wliitlield, wrote, in 1838: "Tho slavet*

j)resont a vast and rieli harvest to the apostolie labortir. I do not

)elievo that there is in this country, without excepting tho Indians,

a class of men among whom it is possible to do more good. ]iut

far from being able to do what I would desire for the salvation of

the unhappy negroes, I see myself unable to meet tho wants of

the thousands of whites, who, equally deprived of tho succors of

religion, feel most keenly their spiritual abandonmont."f

This sad state of things has not coas.jd to exist, for tho clergy
are still far too few to devote themselves especially to the con-
version of the blacks. There are many negro Catholics in Louisi-
ana, Missouri, Maryland, and Now York, but in general it is tho
fanaticism of Wesley that is preached with success to tho colored
people, and a part of the slaves follow tlie superstitious practices
of that atct, while a large number preserve the gross worship of
Fctichisni. Wo cannot but express our wish that the work of
the worthy Mr. Juubert may obtain a wide extension, aiX' ihat
the pious Oblates, of wliom he is tho founder, may be propujj.'.'^'
in all directions, in order to bring up the colored childreu li; the
truths of Christianity.];

One of the first acts of Archbishop Whitfield's administration
was tho visitai mi of his diocese, wliich, in 1828, comprised fifty-

* Annnles d.i In 7r\ [nipition do lo Fo', v. 722.
+ Annalcs d>i ia I'ropiif'ation do lu T^oi, x. 498.

X James Hector .loubcrt was born at St. -loan d'Angcly, Scptcmher 6tli,
1777. In 1801 ho went to St. Domingo, and thence to Baltimore, where lio

I-
! \]

IN THE UNII'EP STATES.

117

jlicH jukI
)inmuiii-

\w saino
Uutholics

JAlC-lt'Htoll,

ho slaves
1 do not
0 IikVuuis,
xxl. But
ilvutiou of
) wants of
succors of

the clergy

the con-
in Louisi-
jil it is tho
[ho colored
Is practices
worship of
|io work of
ani'' ill at
>roT»:c^ii'.'' '
Ireii HI ^lie

linistration
t)rised fifty-

Itctnbcr 6th,
\c, where ho

two prie-sts and from sixty tlioiisaiid tt) oi;. hly tliousaiid Catholics.
This visilali«»M sliowed him the (^ryiiij;; wants of lh<' va«t district
committee! to his care, and tlui ft-chlo nisources which lu cc^dd
contr ' t'c tlie advancement of reh^itut His private fortune wan
co'i^i'I nl'i', and lie now devoted his whole income to huilditkj^
olnuclies and estahhsiiini^ us<'ful institutions. Like his veneral)lo
prudecessor, lie invariahly appeal(Hl for aid to the Association for
tlie l*ropa«j;ation of the Faith, and by tho returns of that body
from 1825 to 1834, tho Archbisliop of liaitimore received thirt v-
two tliousand francs. There was, moreover, a certain suifi
allotted for Mt. St. Mary's, and Louis XV III. and Charles X.
also sent, on several Occasions, oflerings to their (jirand Almoner
for the diocese of Baltimore. Still tho Association for the
l*ropagation of tho Faith showed itself, at first, especially liberal
to the dioceses of New Orleans and Bardstown. There all was
to bo created, while Maryland oftered some resources to her
clergy.

It was to aid tho missions of the United States that tho admi-
rable Association for tho Propagation of tho Faith was established,
and for this reason it becomes us to chronicle its rise.

In 1815, Bishop Dubourg of New Orleans, returning from
Rome after his consecration, stopped a short time at Lyons, and
preoccupied in miu' i with tho wants of his diocese, recommended
it warmly to the < liarity of tho people of Lyons. The prelate
spoke especially on the subject to a pious widow, whom ho had
formerly known in America, and imparted to her his idea of
founding a socioty of alms-givers for the spiritual wants of Louisi-
ana. For scneral ensuing years the lady merely collected such

arrived in Septc'iber, 1804. lie soon after entered St. Mary's Seminary,
and was tho tliiruonth jiricst orduiucd in that Siilpitlan establishment. Ho
spent tlio remainder of bis life in tho st'ininary, fulfilling with zeal the func-
tions to whieh he was called, either au professor or as vice-president of tho
college,

1^ ^

I -"I ' ' ;

! !

■ I I

118

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

little aid as she could, and sent it to Bishop Diibouig; but is
1822, a Vicar-general of New Orleans arrived at Lyons and gave
new life to the charity of the benefactors of Louisiana. They had
hitherto failed to aid sufficiently one single mission, yet for all
that they resolved to aid all the missions in the world, and the
principle of Catholicity infused into the new work drew down
upon it the blessings of Heaven. On the 3d of May, 1822, tho
feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross, twelve persons met to-
gether at Lyons. The proceedings began by invoking the Holy
Ghost ; a priest then made a short recital of the sufterings of re-
ligion in America, and proposed the establishment of a vast asso-
ciation to furnish pecuniary resources for the missions of the whole
world.

The assembly unanimously adopted this opinion, naming a
president and committee to organize the association. The society
soon absorbed another modest association, established in 1820,
among the female silk operatives, to help the Christians in China.
The combined efforts had the results which the partial attem])t3
had never dreamed of attaining. The receipt of the first May
was five hundred and twenty francs ; that of the first year rose to
fifteen thousand two hundred, and seventy-two francs — over three
thousand dollars.

The resources of which the Association for the Propagation of
the Faith now disposes, enable it to distribute annually from
three milhon to four million of francs — nearly a million doUars —
among the missions of the five great divisions of the world.* Of
this sum the amount allotted to the bishops of the United States
varies from one hundred thousand to one hundred and fifty thou-
Band dollars. From 1822 to 1853, the total of the contributions

ji.

* Wc have drawn these statistics from the annual accounts of the Society,
made successively from 1822 to 1853. A writer in a late number of the Me-
tropolitan has recently done the same, and called the attention of the Catho-
lics of America to this debt of gratitude.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

119

1\ but is
and gave
Thoy had
et for all
, and the
[■ew down
1822, the
3 met to-
the Holy
i<fs> of re-
vast asso-
the whole

naming a

he society
in 1820,

I in China.

attem]>t3

first May

ar rose to

over three

igation of
ally from
dollars —
rid* Of
ted States
fifty thou-
ributions

he Society,
of the Mo-
the Catho-

sent to missionaries has amounted to fifty-one million and ninety-
three thousand francs, about one quarter of which hus been de-
voted to the missions in the United States. Who can tell the
number of churches and chapels built by this peasants' and oper-
atives' penny a week — the number of missionaries whose expen-
sive voyages it has paid — the number of conversions which these
missionaries have effected — or, what is better, the number of
Catholics saved from indifference and ultimate apostasy — the
numbers on numbers enabled by their ministry to live a Christian
life and escape eternal damnation ? The history of the Church
in the United States is, to some extent, the history of the results
obtained by this association, and our object in writing is to stimu-
late the zeal of the associates and increase their number. As our
readers follow our sketches they will see that the wants are daily
greater, and that the ties between the young Church of America
and the time-honored Church of France cry aloud for a perpetua-
tion, not in a view of earthly fame, but for the greater glory of
God. The first martyrs of Maine, New York, and lUinois came
from the France which holds the ashes of Mary Magdalene, of
Lazarus, and of Pothinus. Most, too, of the first bishops were
natives of France ; and after aiding the United States to achieve
political independence, she has now the higher glory of aiding
her for the last thirty years to extend the kingdom of Christ,
^^ Hex regnantium et Dominus dominantiumy

The example given by the Association for the Propagation of
the Faith has been moreover imitated in Germany. The Leo-
poldine Association, formed in Austria, has for its sole and special
object the support of the American missions. It was established
at Vienna on the 15th of April, 1829, at the time of a visit made
by the Rev. Mr. Reze, afterwards Bishop of Detroit, to solicit aid
for the diocese of Cincinnati, of which he was Vicar-general. Its
name is a memorial of the Archduchess Leopoldiue, herself by
marriage an American princess, and Empress of Brazil. The

'^fr**'

120

THE CATHOLIC cnuRCii

Arclidukc Riulolpli, Curdlnal Arclibisliop of Olmutz, and brother
of Francis II., at onco became the protector of the association,
and in inaugurating it pronounced these memorable words : " It
behooves the Church of France, jealous of its ancient glories, to
march in the fervor of its faith ever at the head and never behind
the other churches of the world." And not for Fi-ance alone do
we claim this glory. In the extension of Christianity, in the
propagation of truth, the Celtic race has ever led the way.

The Leopoldine Association spread over all the Austrian States.
By 1832 it had sent to the United States over twenty-five thou-
sand dollars, which had been distributed among the dioceses of
Charleston, Philadelphia, Bardstown, and St. Louis. In 1834 the
amount sent to America was sixteen thousand dollars. Of the
subsequent labors of this charitable society we have no statistics,
but we know that the dioceses in which the German inmiigra-
tion has centered receive abundant aid from this source. The
interest which it has excited has not been otherwise fruitless.
Future historians may be at a loss to explain how a dictionary of
the Chippeway language, and works in that dialect, came to bo
printed at Laybach, in lUyria ; but as soon as we learn that when
the government of the United States refused to aid the Catholic
missionary to piint these works, the generosity of Austria sup-
plied the necessary funds, we can at once explain the strange
fact.*

The Catholic bishops in the United States had long desired to
assemble in Council, in order to adopt regulations as to ecclesias-
tical discipline and the administration of the sacraments. Obsta-
cles, however, of various kinds pre\'ented their meeting. Arch-
bishop Whitfield undertook to remove all these difficulties, and
with the approbation of the Holy See, had the satisfaction of con-
voking his colleagues in a Provincial Council, the opening of

* Aiinales de hi Propiigtition de la Foi, vi. 179 ; viii. 247. llenrion, His-
toire Geiierale dcs Missions, ii. 676. Bishop Baraga, Chippewa Dictionary.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

121

and brother
association,
) words : " It
[it glories, to
never behind
,nce alone do
anity, in tlio
s way.

istrian States,
nty-five tliou-
e dioceses of
In 1834 the
ilars. Of the
s no statistics,
nan immigra-
source. The
Iwise fruitless,
dictionary of
;, came to bo
jn that when
the Catholic
Austria sup-
the strange

ag desired to
to ecclesias-

3nts. Obsta-

^ting. Arch-
iculties, and

Action of con-
opening of

llenrion, His-
7i\ Dictionaxy.

which was fixed for the 4th of October, 1829. Till then there
had never been any regular convenHon of the American clergy,
except the Diocesan Synod of 1791 and the meeting of the bish-
ops in 1810; and before speaking of the acts of the Council of
1829, we will state briefly what took place in the two previous
assemblies. The Synod of 1791 and its decisions had remained
in great veneration among the clt-rgy, as we may judge by the
following reflections of Mr. Brute, written by him on the 6th of
November, 1831, while preparing the questions to be submitted
to the Second Council of Baltimore :

"We must read over the Synod of 1791 for the form, and its
authority will be a good direc'.'on. In every line you see the
bishop. In all you see how much he has consulted, and that the
spirit of faith, charity, and zeal has in that first assembly served
as a happy model for its successors. Could it be otherwise in an
assembly of such priests under Archbishop Carroll ! Messrs. Pel-
lentz, founder of Conewago and Lancaster ; Molyneux and Flem-
ing, Vicars of the North and South, as Pellentz was of the whole
diocese ; Neale, Plunkett, Gressel, Nagot, Gamier, etc. ; the cele-
brated convert, Mr. Thayer, etc. Such worthy priests immortalize
this Synod with a blessing of union, grace, and zeal, which will
be the same forty years after ad multos iterum annos, or rather
for much more frequent meetings of Diocesan Synods, for which
this will ever serve as a model."*

The First Council of Baltimore in 1829 decided that the
statutes of the Synod of 1791 should be printed with the acts of
the Council, and the bishops thus gave new vigor to the regula-
tions of that Synod. In the first session, held on the 7th of No-
vember, 1791, the bishop delivered a discourse suited to the
occasion, after which the members made a profession of faith.
At the second session, held the afternoon of the same day, statutes

* Manuscript of Bishop Brute of Vinoennos.
6

■I i:

) :

P •!

i : '

122

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

•were passed as to the conditional baptism of converts, on baptis-
mal registers, on not confirming children before the age of reason.
The third session, which took place on the 8tli, took up the sacra-
ment of the Eucharist ; it treated of the first communion of chil-
dren, of decency in the ceremonial, of the ecclesiastical dress, of
collections and trustees. In the fourth session, on the 9th of No-
vember, they considered the sacrament of Penance ; reminded all
of the necessity of an approbation for priests, and forbid them to
go to stay in other places than those where they were stationed.
This was necessary, as some priests, Germans especially, believed
they could dispense with episcopal institution from the new
bishop, and one remarkable case we shall have occasion to men-
tion. The sacraments of Extreme Unction and Matnmony were
also treated of, and mixed marriages subjected to proper guaran-
tees.

On the last session, on the 10th of November, regulations were
adopted as to holidays, manual labor being tolerated in certain
cases on holidays not falling on a Sunday ; and finally, decrees
were made upon the oflRces, the life of the clergy, their mainte-
nance and burial.*

* Concilia Provincialia Baltimori habita. Baltimore, 1851, page 11. M6
moires pour servir a I'histoire ecclesiastique pendant Ic XVIH. Si6cle : Paris,
1815, iii. 190.

The following are the names of the priests who attended the synod of 1791 j
they deserve to be preserved, as having, with Archbishop Carroll, laid th«
foimdation of the Church in the United States :

James Pellentz, V. G. for the whole diocese ; James Frambach ; Eobert
Molyneux, S. J., Vicar-general for the South (English) ; Francis Anthony
Fleming, S. J., V. G. of the Northern district; Francis Charles Nagot,
President of the Sulpitian Seminary (French) ; John Ashton, S. J. ; Henry
Pile ; Leonard Neale, S. J. ; Charles Sewall, S. J. ; Sylvester Boarman, S. J. ,
■William Filing; James Vanhutffel; Robert Plunkett; Stanislaus Cerfou-
mont ; Francis Beeston ; Lawrence Gressel ; Joseph Eden ; Louis Caesar
Delavan, ex-Canon of Tours ; John Tessier, Sulpitian (French) ; Anthony
Gamier, Sulpitian (Frenoh).

Tliese twenty priests were the only ones present at the first meetings.
The following were present also on the 10th of November ;

John Bolton, S. J., pastor of St. Joseph's ; John Thayer, pastor of Boston.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

123

on baptw-

of reason.
► the sacra-
on of cbil-
;al dress, of

9th of No-
smmded all
)id them to
e stationed,
lly, beUeved
m the new
sion to men-
rimony were
oper guaran-

;ulations were
ed in certain
aally, decrees
their mainte-

, page 11. M»i
I. Si6cle : Paris*,

) synod of 1791 i
DarroU, laid th«

[mbach; Robert
(rancis Anthony
1 Charles Nagot,
ln,S. J.; Henry
1 Boar man, S. J. ,

tmislaus Cerfou-
Louis Caesar

^nch) ; Anthony

first meetings.
Daator of Boston.

When the bishops elect of Boston, Diiladelphia, and Bards-
town met at Baltimore in 1810 to receive episcopal consecration,
they had some conferences with Archbishop Carroll, to regulate
together important points of discipline, and the following is a
summary of the articles then adopted :

I. Poor as they may be in subjects for the ecclesiastical state,
the bishops declare that they will cheerfully permit their dioce-
sans to enter any regular or secular order for which they feel a
vocation.

II. Tlie bishops forbid the use in prayer-books of any version
of the Holy Scriptures except that of the Douay Bible.

III. They permit the reciting in the vernacular of the prayers
which precede or follow the essential form of the administration
of the sacraments, except the Mass, which must always be cele-
brated entirely in Latin; but they forbid the use of any translation
of the prayers not approved by all the bishops in the province.

IV. The bishops do not permit perpetual vows of chastity to
bo pronounced out of regular religious associations.

V. They exhort all pastors of souls to combat constantly, in
public and in private, amusements dangerous to morals, as balls
and stage plays, and forbid the reading of books which may
weaken faith or corrupt virtue, especially novels.

VI. They forbid priests to admit Free Masons to the sacra-
ments, unless they promise to stop attending the lodges, and
openly proclaim their renunciation of the society.*

It had been the intention of the bishops to meet in a Provin-
cial Council, as soon as they should become well aware of the
condition and wants of their several dioceses, as Ave see by the fol-
lowing preamble to their articles of the loth of November, 1810:

" It appears to the archbishops and bishops now assembled,
that the holding of a Provincial Council will be more advan-

* Concilia Provincialia Baltiniori habita, p. 25. Life of Bishop Cheverns,
page 85.

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THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

tagooiis at a future period, when the situation and wants of the
ditibrent dioceses will be nioi'e exactly known. This Provincial
Council will be held, at farthest, witliin two years from the 1st of
November, 1810; and in the mean time the archbishop and
bisliops will now consider together such matters as appear to
them most urgent ; and they reconuuend a uniform practice in
regard to their decisions, until the holding of the said Provincial
Council."*

These projects could not be realized ; and, as we have said, it
was only in 1829 that Archbishop Whitfield convoked the bish-
ops of the United States in a Provincial Council at Baltimore.
The prelates who met at the call of their Metropolitan were :

Rt. Rev. Benedict Joseph Flaget, Bishop of Bardstown.

Rt. Rev. John England, Bishop of Charleston and Vicar-general
of Florida East.

Rt. Rev. Edward Fenwick, Bishop of Cincinnati.

Rt. Rev. Joseph Rosati, Bishop of vSt. Louis and Administrator
of New Orleans. ^

Rt. Rev. Benedict Fenwick, Bishop of Boston.

Four prelates were unable to come, viz. : Rt. Rev. John Dubois,
Bishop of New York, who had embarked for Europe a month
before ; and the Rt. Rev. John B. David, Coadjutor of Bardstown,
the proxy of the Bishop of New York, prevented from attending
by sickness. The Rt. Rev. Michael Portier, Bishop of Mobile,
was also in Franc^ ; and the Rt. Rev. Henry Conwell, being now
merely titular Bishop of Philadelphia, was represented by the
Rev. William Mathews, the Administrator of that diocese.f

The opening of the Council took place on Sunday, the 4th of
October, in the Cathedral of Baltimore. Archbishop Whitfield

:i '1

* Life of Bishop Flaget by Biahop Spalding, p. 66.

+ Joseph Rosati, born at Sora in the kingdom of Naples, January 80th,
1789, entered the Congregation of the Priests of the Mission or Lazarists at
an early age, and n 1815 joined Bishop Diibourg at Rome, to follow him to

IN THE UNITED STATES.

125

[its of the
Provincial

the 1st of
.ishop and

appear to
practice in

Provincial

lave said, it
ed the bish-
t Baltimore.
Q were ;

own.
^car-general

administrator

John Dubois,
ope a month
)f Bardstown,
om attending
of Mobile,
I, being now

ented by the

iocese.f

ay, the 4th of

hop "Whitfield

•P

is, January SOth,
m or LazaristB at
to follow him to

cv i 1 :m'.l' 1 .1 rv'i.iiiu M;iss, and liaving fixed that day for the re-
*.\i);iu;i of lii.s p:. Ilium, it was imposed upon him by Bishop Fla-
get, the senior prelate. Every day a morning session was held,
at wliieli the bishops alone were present, with the Administrator
of Philadelphia; and an afternoon congregation, which the
members of the second order also attended.* The closing of the
Council took place on Sunday, the 18th of October, and on the
24th the prelates signed a letter by which they submitted their
decrees to Pope Pius VIII. The decrees, approved by the Con-
gregation "de propaganda fide" on the 28th of June, 1830, were
presented to the Holy Father, who confirmed them on the 26th
of September. They were transmitted by the Congregation to
Ameiica on the 16th of October, with some remarks "pcrmodiim
instructionis insinuanda^^ and these remarks having been com-
municatee to the Fathers of the Council, the decrees wei'e printed
on the 30th of June, 1831. They are thirty-eight in number,
and we subjoin a summary of the most important :

I. The bishops have the right of sending to any part of their

America. In 1824, Bishop of Tenngra and Coadjutor of New Orleans. In
1824, first Bishop of St. Louiri. Died at Rome, September 15, 1843.

Ben£dict Joseph Fenwick, born at Leonardtown, Maryland, Sept. 3, 1782.
Bishop of Boston in 1825; died Aug. 11, 1846.

John Dubois, born at Paris, August 24, 1764. Bishop of New York in
1826 ; died at New York in 1842.'

John Baptist David, born near Nantes in 1760. Bishop of Mauricastro
and Coadjutor of Bardstown in 1819 ; died June 12, 1841.

Michael Portier, born at Montbuson, Sept. 7, 1795, came to America in
1817. Bishop of Oleno and Vicar-apostolic of Alabama and Florida in 1826.
Bishop of Mobile since 1829.

Henry Conwell, born in Ireland. Bishop of Philadelphia in 1820 ; died at
Philadelphia, April 21, 1842.

Of the other prelates present at the Council, we have already given short
biographical notices.

* The ecclesiastics present were :

Kev. John Tessier, Sulpitian, V. G. of Baltimore; died in 1840.
Kev. John Power, V. G. of New York ; died in 1849.
• Father Dziero^ynski, Superior of the Jesuits; died in 1850.
Kev. Mr. Carrierc, Visitor of St. Sulpicc.

: c
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126

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

diocese, or recalling any priest ordained or incorporated within it.
This does not extend to the See of New Orleans, which is alone
regarded as having the rank and privileges of benefices in the
United States.

II. Priests ordained in a diocese or incorporated into it are not
to leave without license of the bishop.

III. Bishops are exhorted not to grant faculties to strange
priests, unless they bring testimonials from their own bishops.
This provision, however, does not apply to apostolical missionaries.

V. As lay trustees have often abused the powers conferred upon
them by the civil law, the Council expresses the desire that bish-
ops should not consent to the erection or consecration of a church,
unless a deed of the property be duly executed to them.

VI. Some laymen, and especially trustees, having assumed a
right of patronage, and even of institution, in some churches, the
Council declares these pretensions unfounded, and forbids their
exercise on any grounds whatever.

IX. The Council exhorts the bishops to dissuade their flocks
from reading Protestant translations of the Bible, and recommend
the use of the Douay version.

XL It is forbidden to admit as sponsors, heretics, scandalous
sinners, infamous men ; lastly, those who ar^ ignorant of the ru-
diments of faith.

XVI. A question having grown up from the difficulty of the
times, of conferring baptism in private houses, the Council does
not wish to suppress it absolutely, but nevertheless exhorts priests
to administer the sacrament in the church as much as possible.

XXVI. The pastors of souls are warned that it behooves them
to prepare the faithful well for the sacrament of matrimony ; and
that they should not consider themselves exempt from sin, if they
have the temerity to administer the sacrament to persons mani-
festly unworthy.

XXXIV. As many young Catholics, especially those born of

IN THE UNITED STATES.

127

within it.
I is alone
es in the

it are not

,0 strange
Q bishops,
issionaries.
erred upon
that bish-
f a church,

assumed a
lurches, the
jrbids their

their flocks
recommend

scandalous
t of the ru-

culty of the
Council does
horts priests
[S possible,
hooves them
•imony; and
n sin, if they
ersons mani-

hose born of

I
I

poor parents, are exposed to the djingor of losing faith and mo-
rality, from the want of teachers to whom tlieir education may
1)0 saft'ly confided, the Council expresses the wish that schools
should be established, where youth may imbibe principles of faith
and morality along with human knowledge.

XXXVI. According to the wise counsel of I'ope Leo XII.,
addressed to the Archbishop of Baltimore, a society shall be
established for the diffusion of good books.

The Holy See also granted to priests in the ynited States
faculty to administer baptism with water not blessed, on Holy
Saturday or Whitsun-eve, and to administer it to adults with the
same form as to children. Priests were authorized to use, in
blessing water, the short form employed by Peruvian missionaries,
with the approbation of Pope Paul III., as given in the Ritual of
Lima, Rome finally permits the Paschal season in the United
States to extend from the first Sunday of Lent to Trinity Sunday
inclusively.*

To meet the views of the Holy Father, the bishops formed an
association to publish elementary books suited to Catholic schools,
and free from all that can give the young false ideas as to reli-
gion. This Metropolitan press continued its issues for several
years, till the spirit of enterprise among Catholic booksellers led
them to publish devotional and other works so cheap that the
object of the bishops was attained. The prelates also favored the
establishment of Catholic journals, and the Catholics in the
United States soon counted five weekly organs — the " Metropoli-
tan" at Baltimore, the "Jesuit" at Boston, the "Cathohc" at
Hartford, the " Miscellany" at Charleston, and the » Truth Teller."

Among the subjects on which the meeting of the bishops threw
great light, was the Catholic population of the vast territory of
the republic. By comparing their calculations, and rectifying

* Cone. Prov. Bait., p. 29. Annates de la Propagation dc la Foi, iv. 226;
V. 711.

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THE CATHOLIC CHUKCII

one by nnolhcr, the Fathers of tho Council conclucleJ that the
number of CnthoHcs in tho United States, in 1829, was over fivo
hundred thousand, and (hiily on the incsreaso, by immigration or
conversion. These developments ati'orded the Episcopate un-
speakable consolation in their labors, as wo may judge by this
letter of Archbishop Whitfield to tho Council of the Association
for tho Propagation of tho Faith, dated February 10th, 1802 :

" The wonders, if I dare so oxpreSvS njyself, that have been
operated, and» are daily operated in my diocese, are a source of
consolation to me, amid tho difficulties against which I have
still often to struggle. Thanks to a special providence over that
beloved jxtrtion of tho people confided to my care, I can say with
the apostle, * I am filled with consolation ; I superabound with^'o//
in all our trihdation.^ When I meditate before God on his goot' -
ness, his mercy, the graces which He bestows on my diocese, my
heart expands, my bowels are moved, and I cannot but recall that
passage of the Psalms : ' He hath not done thus to every nation.'
A truly Catholic spirit distinguishes Maryland and the District of
Columbia from all other States in the Union ; and I venture to
say, without any fear of wounding the truth, the city of Baltimore
is justly renowned for the true and solid piety of its people. Con-
versions of Protestants in health are also numerous, and not a
week, in some seasons not a day passes without our priests being
called to the bedside of some invalid, who wishes to abjure error
and die in the bosom of the Church."*

Thus were realized the hopes of the Holy See, in organizing
tlie Episcopate of the United States.

* Annales de la Propagation do la Foi, v. 711.

• ■■ 1

IN THE UNITED STATES.

120

led that tlio
vas over fivo
nigration or
iscopato un-
Klge l»y this
3 Association
th, 1832:
it have been
a source of
^hich [ have
nee over that
can say with
3und witli jo//
donhisgoot""-
y diocese, my
but recall that
evc'v nation,
he District of
I venture to
of Baltimore
[people. Con-
,s, and not a
priests being
abjure error

fcn organizing

ClIAl'TEU X.

DIOCKBK OF DALTIMOKK — (1820-1884).

Bccond Provincial Councll—Dccreen as totlio election of bishops— Decrees for confti11ti)|t
to the Jesuits the Negroes and Indlatis— The colony of l^lberla and Bishop Rarron—
The Cartnolltes— Liberality of Archbishop Whittteld— Ills character and death.

The years wJiich tullowed tlie meeting of the first I'rovincial
Council of Baltimore brought various changes in the Episcopate
of the United States. Bishop Dubourg of New Orleans had left
Louisiana in June, 1826, to assume the direction of the diocese
of Montauban in France, and New Orleans had for several years
been administered by the Bishop of St. Louis. Tlie vacancy of
the See was filled by the Pontifical rescript of August 4, 1829,
appointing the Rev. Mr. Leo De Neckere, a Belgian priest of the
Congregation of the Missions, Bishop of New Orleans. He was
consecrated by Bishop Rosati on the 24tlx of Jimo, 1830, and
began his episcopate. At Cincinnati, Bishop Edward Fetiwick,
having fallen a victim to the cholera in 1832, had been replaced
by Rt. Rev. John B. Purcell, consecrated on the 13th of October,
1833. At Philadelphia, the Rev. William Mathews, appointed
Administrator of the diocese by a Pontifical brief dated February
26, 1828, having refused the post of Coadjutor, the Rev. Francis
Patrick Kenrick was appointed Bishop of Arath and Coadjutor of
Philadelphia, cum plena potcstate ad regendam dioccemn, and was
consecrated on the 6th of June, 1830. Lastly, the Holy See had
formed a special diocese of Michigan and Norlhwest Territory,
which comprised what is now Wisconsin and Iowa, and named
the Rev. Frederick Res6 Bishop of Detroit. The new prelate

i ■ . !

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tiMmma-iSeti

130

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

WHS roiiM'cralcd on (lu; Otli v( October, 1833, at Ciiieiniuili, by
]{isli(tj» Hrulo.

The papers of iJishop Hnito contain a pag(! written at tho nio-
TiK'iit when this second Coiiiieil was assenibHng, ujul which
throw.^ considerable li^ht on this important (piestiou. According
to tlic futiiro Bishop of Vinconnes:

"Tho principal point to examine in tho second I'rovincial
Council is the mode to be ostablislicd for electing bishops. Till
now they have been chosen in one of tho five following ways :

"1st. Proji.L motu. Some one, witliout authority or war-
rant, suggests a subject to the Holy See. In this way Bishops
Concaiien, Connolly, Conwell, Kelly, and England were aj)pointed.

" 2d. Tho archbishop and his sufiragans agree uj)on a person,
and sucli was the presentation of Bishop David as Coadjutor of
lUirdstown.

" 3d. Others have been appointed on tlie presentation of tho
Lishop of the diocese, who desired a coadjutor; and in this way
Mr. Blanc was named to tlie See of New Orleans, which ho has
I'cfused, and Mr. Chabrat is now for Kontucliy.*

" 4th. Some have been presented by bishops of other dioceses,
witliont the participation of tho archbisliop. Thus Bishop Pur-
cell was appointed at tho instance of Bishop England ; Bishop
Kem'ick had written to Rome in favor of Hev. John Hughes, and
tlio archbishop in favor of Fatlier Dubuisson.f

* Rev. Antlioiiy Bliinc receivcil in 1802 the bulls of Biwliop of Apollonia
and Coadjutor of New Orleans ; but he made it a condition that Bishop Do
Ncckcro should abandon liis project of rcsipninfr. That prelate havinj?
persisted in handinjf in liis demission, Mr. Blanc sent back tho bulls.
Bishop De Neckere having died on the 4th of September, 1833, Kev. An-
((ustus Jcanjeau, V. G., was appointed Bishop of New Orleans ; but ho re-
fused. In October, 1835, the Kcv. Anthony Blanc received the bulla naming
him bishop instead of Bishop De Neckere, and he accepted.

t We are informed that tho nomination of Dr. rurcell oriofimited with
Bishop Kenrick. It was supported at Kome by Bishop England, who, how-
ever, manifested his prcfcroncc for tho appointment of Ecv. Jolui Hughes.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

131

inti

mi, by

at the nio-

iml which

According

,,v

I'roviiiciiil

hops. Till

r ways :

ity or \\:\r-

my liishops

0 appointed.

DU a person,

'oadjutov of

ition of tho

in this way

hich he has

•

lev dioceses,

r>ishop riii-

,ud; Bishop

lughcs, and

— ^ __ —

) of Apolloniiv

int Bishop Do

irclutc havinff

ick tho bulls.

833, Kcv. Aw-

s ; hut ho re-

i bulls naming

•iffinulecl with

k1, who, how-

loliu Hughes.

*' 6th. Lastly, for tlw first nomination, that of Bishi)p Carroll,
the Pope granted tlie clergy tho privilege of electing the bishop,
but only for that occasion, reserving in future the nomination to
tho Propaganda.

" Rome asks the present Council to lay its wishes before the
Pope for his approbation, as to a regular mode of election to be
observed in future. Tho Propaganda hius stated that they will
not object to grant America election as in Ireland."

Tho prelates who corresponded to tho call of Archbishop Whit-
field, and convened with their Metropolitan on the 20th of Octo-
ber, 1833, were:

Rt. Rev. John B. David, Bishop of Mauricastro and Coadjutor
of Bardstown.

Rt. Rev. John England, Bishop of Charleston.

Rt. Rev. Joseph Rosati, Bishop of St. Louis.

Rt. Rev. Benedict Fenwick, Bishop of Boston.

Rt. Rev. John Dubois, Bishop of Now York.

Rt. Rev. Michael Portier, Bishop of Mobile.

Rt. Rev. Francis P. Kenrick, Bishop of Arath, Coadjutor and
Administrator of Philadelphia.

Rt. Rov. Frederick Rese, Bishop of Detroit.

Rt. Rev. John B. Purcell, Bishop of Cincinnati.

Tho two last-named prelates had received episcopal consecra-
tion only a few days before the opening of tho Council. Bishop
Flaget, of Bardstown, had been prevented by age from coming to

The archbishop wrote in favor of Rov. Stephen Dubuisson, S. J., but the ap-
pointment of Dr. Purcell having been already made by the Propaganda, and
communicated to tl>o United States through Bishop England, he remonstrated
against any change, and the Pope accordingly confirmed it.

Father Laregaudello Dubuisson, born in St. Domingo, October 21, 1786,
first entered the French army, and was in 1814 Secretary of the Civil List.
About this time he entered the Seminary of Saint Sulpice, and, on his ordi-
nation, catno to America, where he entered the Society of Jesus, and lauorod
till 1840, when ill health compelled him to retire to the south of France.

I i

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a .

ti '

"— ""-"T—

1!^

I'!
> ij'i

1,''';

■ill:

I 'il

'('■i

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132

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Baltimore, and Bishop De Neckere, of New Orleans, had died the
preceding month.*

The closing of the Council took place on the 27th of October,
and by the first decree the Fathers solicited of the Holy Father
the erection of a new See at Vincenuos for Indiana and a part of
lUinois.

* The following are the members of the second order present at the
Council :

Rev, Louia Repris Deloul, V. G. of Baltimore, i remoter.

Rev. Louis E. Damphoux, Secretary.

Rev. John Hoskyns, Sec. Died January 11, 1887, aged twenty-nine.
Vice-president of St. Mary's College, Baltimore.

Rev. John Joseph Chanche, Muster of Ceremonies. Died in 1852 ; Bishop
«f Natchez.

Rev. John Randanne, Rev. Peter Fredet, Chanters ; both Sulpitians, and
Professors in St. Charles' College ; the latter died in 1856.

CONSULTING THEOLOGIANS.

Rev. Father William McSherry, Provincial of the Society of Jesus in Ma-
ryland. Died December 17, 1839.

Rev. Father Nicholas D. Young, Provincial of the Order of St. Dominic;
now at St. Joseph's, Cincinnati.

Rev. John Tessier, V. G., Baltimore.

Theologian of the Archbishop of Ba'timore — Rev. Samuel Eocleston. Died
in 1851 ; Archbishop of Baltimore.

Theologian of the Bishop of New Orleans — Rev. Augustus Jeanjean. Died
at New Orleans, April 11th, 1841, aged forty-six; V. G. of the diocese.

Theologian of the Bishop of Mauricastro — Rev. Mr. De Barth.

Theologian of the Bishop of Charleston — Rev. Andrew Byrne ; now Bishop
of Little Rock.

Theologian of the Bishop of St. Louis — Rev. John Odin ; now Bishop of
Galveston.

Theologian of the Bishop of Boston — Rev. John J. Chanche.

Theologian of the Bishop of New York — Rev. John Power. Died April
14, 1849 : Vicar-general, New York.

Theologian of the Bishop of Mobile — Rev. Peter Mauvernay. Died Octo-
ber 23, 1839 ; President of Spring Hill College.

Theologian of the Bishop of Arath— Rev. John Hughes ; now Archbishop
of New York.

Theologian of the Bishop of Detroit — Rev. William Mathews. Died in
1854.

Theologian of the Bishop of Cincinnati — Rev. Simon Brute. Consecrated,
0«*ober 28, 1884, Bishop of Vincennes. Died in 1889.

IN THE LNITED STATES.

133

lad died the

of October,
ady Father
nd a part of

)resent at the

i twenty-nine.
11852; Bishop
Sulpitians, and

if Jesus in Ma-
»f St. Dominic ;

Iccleston. Died

leanjean. Died

diocese,
th.
le ; now Bishop

now Bishop of

;r. Died April

Died Ooto-

ow Archbishop

lews. Died in

Consecrated,

■ 1<

By the third decree, the Council set forth the fixed limits
which it judged proper to give each diocese.

By the fourth decree, the Council submits to the Holy See the
following mode of electing the bishops :

'• When a See falls vacant, the suffrages of the other bishops in
the province are to be taken, in order to determine the priests who
shall be proposed to the Sovereign Pontiff for that See. If a
Provincial Council is to meet within three months after the pre-
late's death, the bishops are to wait till then to select the persons
to be proposed. Bishops desiring a coadjutor shall also submit
to the vote of their colleagues in council assembled, the names of
the clergymen proposed for the post of coadjutor.

" As the holding of a Provincial Council may be remote, every
bishop shall keep two sealed packages, containing the names of
at least three priests who seem to him worthy to succeed him.
On the death of the prelate, the Vicar-general shall transmit one
of these to the archbishop, the other to the nearest bishop. The
latter, after taking note of the names given by the late prelate,
shall transmit it with his observations to the archbishop. The
metropolitan then writes to all liis suflfragans, submitting to their
examination the three names given by the late prelate, or three
others, if he finds serious objections to the former; and then
every bishop writes individually to the Propaganda, giving his
observations on the three or on th'> ^:x proposed. On the death
of the metropolitan, the dean of the suffragans shall discharge the
duties which, in other circumstances, devolve on the archbishop.
If the deceased prelate leave among his papers no nomination of
a successor, the nearest bishop suggests three names to the arch-
bishop, and the latter submits them to his suffragans, with three
other names, if the former do not meet his confidence."

On the I7th of May, 1834, the Congregation wrote to Arch-
bishop Whitfield, transmitting the apostolic brief which erected
the See of Vinconnes, and appointed to it the Rev. Simon Brute.

134

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Uiy 11

III i ,

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l! '

By a decree of June 14th, 1834, the Propaganda approved the
mode proposed for nominating bishops, reserving to the Holy See
the right and liberty of choosing any other than those thus pro-
posed by the bishops of the United States. Lastly, Pope Gregory
XVI., by his bull of June 17, 1834, fixed the limits of the dio-
ceses according to the decree of the second Council of Baltimore.

In its fifth decree the Council had asked of the Holy See that
the Indian tribes dwelling beyond the limits of the fixed dioceses
of the United States should be confided to the care of the Society
of Jesus.

The Propaganda solemnly approved the decree, and this hom-
age rendered to the Jesuits by the American hierarchy is a new
title of glory for the sons of St. Ignatius. As early as 1823,
Bishop Dubourg, of New Orleans, wishing to revive the faith
among the Indians scattered over the vast extent of his diocese,
applied to the Jesuits of Maryland, begging them to found a
mission in Missouri. The Fathers could not answer the call.
Seven young Belgians, who were in the Maryland novitiate,
however, set out, under the direction of Fathers Van Quicken-
borne and Timmermann, and began an establishment in Florissant
in June, 1824. Thence the Jesuits visited the tribes in various
parts, announcing the Gospel to all. After the action of the
Council, a greater development was given to this apostolic field.
In 1834 missions were begun in the district called the Indian
Territory, west of Missouri, and in 1840, Father Peter J. De Smet
set out for Oregon, where he soon founded a flourishing mission.*

The Fathers of the Council also recommended to the Holy See,
by their sixth decree, the negroes who emigrate from the United
S^''ies to the African colony of Liberia, and solicit the Propa-
ganda to found in behalf of these blacks on the coast of Africa a
mission to be confided to the care of the Jesuits, This solicitude

* History of the Catholic Missions among the Indian Tribes of the United
StutfeB, by John G. Shea. New Ydrk, ISSS.

UjI?,

IN THE UNITED STATES.

135

proved the
e Holy See
3 thus pro-
pe Gregory
)f the dio-
Baltimore.
ly See that
ed dioceses
the Society

I this horn-
ly is a new
ly as 1823,
e the faith
his diocese,
to found a
pr the call.

novitiate,
n Quickeu-
u Florissant

in various

tion of the

ostolic field.

the Indian

J. De Smet

cr mission.*

le Holy See,

the United

the Propa-

of Africa a

is solicitude

of the United

■■•«

of the American Church for the salvation of the blacks, even after
leaving the soil of the United States, induces us to give a brief
fiketch of the colony of Liberia.

In 1787 a philanthropical society was formed at London, to
send to Sierra Leone the negroes who, during the war of the
American Revolution, had sought refuge in the ranks of the
British army, and had returned to Great Britain with the other
troops at the close of the war.

The idea of the London philanthropists was to restore tlicse
blacks to the African continent from which their fathers had been
torn, and it was believed that there alone, free from the tradi-
tional contempt attached to their color, and from which no eman-
cipation is complete enough to free them, the civilized negi'oes
might constitute by themselves an independent society, and labor
with profit to abolish the slave-trade on the coast. This generous
idea spread to America, and on the 1st of January, 1817, a pow-
erful colonization society was organized at Washington, intended
to transport free negroes to the coast of Africa, and there create
a country for them. The first emigration took place in 1819, and
Monrovia was founded at Cape Mesurado, the whole country which
they hoped to colonize receiving the name of Liberia. The com-
mencement was diflScult, as happens in eveiy effort of the kind,
and in 1833 an independent colonization society was formed in
Maryland, resolved to form a settlement distinct from that of the
national society. All minds at Baltimore were occupied with this
project in 1833, when the Fathers of the Council, interested in
all that concerns the great human family, made it the object of
their deliberations. The Maryland colony was founded at Cape
Palmas, between latitude four degrees and five degrees north, two
degrees south of Cape Mesurado.*

We have always wished success to the interesting establish-

* A History of Colonization on the Western Coast of Africa, b^- Archibald
Alexander. Philaddphia, 1848.

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136

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

ment on the coast of Liberia — success less sure now than ever.
If we have httle sympathy with the dreamers who from to-day to
to-mori'ow create, with the stroke of a pen, civil and political
rights for whole populations of slaves ; if we do not believe in the
instantaneous initiation of the ignorant and brutalized negro,
whom they would make an elector before making him a Chris-
tian, we can appreciate the high and charitable views of those
Americans who, seeing their cities full of free blacks, vegetating
in misery, seek to persuade these poor people to return to Africa,
whence their fathers came. There the negroes receive lands,
provisions, farming implements. Their passage and that of their
families is paid, and to colored men of intelligence and education
a fair field lies open to take part in a government already or-
ganized, to labor in extinguishing the slave-trade and regenerating
the neighboring tribes, and indeed all Africa*

Unfortunately the various colonization societies formed to peo-
ple the African coast are animated by sectarianism, and this has
frequently made all their sacrifices sterile of result. The Method-
ists and Baptists expend large sums in maintaining missionaries
in Liberia, but the rivalry of these gentlemen, more in the field of
commerce than in that of theology, destroys the material good
which their concurrence might afford the blacks. Unfortunately,
too, the climate devours the immigrants, and of the five thousand
negroes sent at great expense from Maryland to Cape Palmas,
only seven hundred survived in 1842, lingering on a burning
coast, and undermined by a terrible fever, which attacks even do-
mestic animals.

The attention of the Holy Father is never called in vain to any
part of Christendom, and the African race has no smaller share
in the solicitude of the Church than the rod-man of the American
forest. The Propaganda approved the decree of the second

* Message of the President of the United States, 1844-5.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

137

r than ever.
m to-day to
nd political
elieve in the
[ized negro,
lim a Chris-
ws of those
3, vegetating
rn to Africa,
iceive lands,
that of their
Qd education
b already or-
regenerating

rmed to peo-
and this has
The Method-
missionaries
n the field of
laterial good
nfortunately,
ive thousand
lape Palmas,
n a burning
Lcks even do-

a vain to any

mailer share

le American

the second

-5.

Council of Baltimore relative to the Liberiim negroes. It seems,
however, that the Society of Jesus was unable in 1834 to under-
take that mission; but in 1840 the Holy See expressed to the
bishops of Philadelphia and New York its desire that each should
appoint a missionary to go to the African colony. It was consid-
ered that as the blacks sent there were from the United States,
and as some from Maryland were Catholics, it was proper that
the priests appointed to announce the true faith to them should
be from the same country. Two ecclesiastics of Irish birth, the
Rev. Edward Bai'ron and the Rev. John Kelly, devoted them-
selves to the task at the call of the Sovereign Pontiff', and, accom-
panied by a young catechist named Dennis Pindar,* sailed from
Baltimore on the 21st of December, 1841, for Cape Mesurado,
whence they proceeded to Cape Palmas. On the 10th of Feb-
ruary, 1842, the Rev. Mr. Barron offered the Holy Sacrifice for
the first time in that land, where the Gospel seems never to
have been preached from the early part of the seventeenth ceu-
tury.f

The two missionaries immediately began, by means < f inter-
preters, to preach to the natives, and the nation of the h-ebos
was soon induced to consecrate the Sunday to rest. After a . hort
stay in Liberia, Mr. Ban-on returned to the United States, and
thence to Ireland and Rome, to give an account of the hopes of
his mission, and to realize from his hereditary estate the resources
he needed. At Rome he was raised to the episcopal dignity,
with the title of Vicar-apostolic of both Guineas, and obtained
seven priests of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Mary, and

* Dennis Pindar, born at Fermoy, in Ireland, in 1823, died at Cape Pal-
mas, January 1, 1844, at the age of twenty-one, after having displayed for
two years the most admirable aeal in the labors of the mission. To his care
Bishop Barron and the Rev. Mr. Kelly owed their lives in the fevers which
attacked them on that fatal shore.

t In 1604, the Jesuits, under Father Bareira, established a mission at
Bierra Leone, and converted a native prince and many of his people.

mmmmmmm

138

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

three brothers of the same Order, who sailed from Bordeaux in
September, and arrived at Cape Palmas on the 30th of Novem-
ber, 1843. These missionaries were M. John Remi Bessieur, of
the diocese of Montpelier, now (1849) Bishop of CalHpolis and
Vicar-apostoHc of both Guineas ; M. De Regnier, who died at the
close of December, 1843; M. John Louis Rousset, of Amiens,
who soon followed him to the grave ; Mr. Francis Bouchet, of the
diocese of Annecy, who died at sea on the 28th of May, 1844,
while going from Assinee to Toal with Bishop Barron ; Mr. Au-
dibert, who died at Great Bassem ; Mr. Laval, who died at Assi-
n6o in the summer of 1844; and Mr. J. M. Maurice, now a
missionary in the United States.*

Three Irish brothers or students, who accompanied the mis-
sionaries, all sank under the terrible climate ; but three French
brothers, though attacked by the fever, finally escaped.

Bishop Barron was thus almost in a moment deprived of his
zealous co-laborers ; all being stricken down, many forever, by
the fatal climate. The indefatigable Mr. Kelly, sick himself, dis-
charged with admirable charity the part of physician of soul and
body for his pious brethren. The prelate, after again visiting
Rome, deemed it best to confide the arduous duties of his mission
to the Society of Father Liebermann, especially devoted to the
conversion of the blacks. He accordingly resigned his vicariate,
and returned to the United States in 1846, and the Rev. John
Kelly followed his example.

Such have been the attempts made by the American Church
to evangelize the blacks on the African coast. If it was com-
pelled to renounce the difficult and ungrateful task, it has the

;i"';

:MVh

* The Annals of the Propagation of the Faith, vol. xix. p. 102, represent
Mr. Maurice as dying there ; but, thank heaven, he is full of life. In 1846
lie devoted himself to the American missions. He spent several years in the
dioceftf^ of Toronto, and is now pastor of St. Peter's, Buflfalo ; and to hia
politeness we owe the above facts and namea.

Ill

m I!

IN THE UNITED STATES.

139

Bordeaux in
h of Novem-
i Bessieur, of
/jillipolis and
10 died at the
, of Amiens,
ouchet, of the
f May, 1844,
ron ; Mr. Au-
died at Assi-
.urice, now a

lied the mis-
three French
)ed.

eprived of his

ly forever, by

: himself, dis-

,n of soul and

igain visiting

tf his mission

voted to the

his vicariate,

e Rev. John

irican Church

it was com-

Ik, it has the

102, represent

life. In 1846

|ral years in the

ilo; and to his

merit of pointing out the good to be done, and that of having
furnished the first missionaries for that apostolic work.*

By the eighth decree, the bishops were exhorted to open an
ecclesiastical seminary in each diocese, conformably to the pre-
scriptions of the Council of Trent ; and by the ninth decree, a
committee was appointed, corr.i osed of the presidents of the
three colleges of St. Mary's, Mount St. Mary's, and Georgetown,
to revise and expurge the books intended for Catholic schools.
Nothing is indeed more important than to put children on their
guard against the wide-spread prejudice by which religion is mis-
represented and held up to the scorn of the masses in the United
States. In the pastoral letter of the first Council, the bishops had
already expatiated on the bitter results of these preventions, and
their remarks have a practical character which renders them ap-
plicable to the present as to the period when they were written.

"Good men," said the prelates in 1829, "men otherwise well
informed, deeply versed in science, in history, in politics — men

* Edward Barron, Bishop of Constantino and Vicar-apostolic of hoth Gui-
neas, was born in Ireland in 1801, and was a brother of Sir Henry Winton
Barron of Waterford. He studied at the College of the Propaganda at Eome,
and won the doctor's cap. Some years after his return to Ireland ho came
to America, and was made Vicar-general of Philadelphia. On his return
from Liberia in 1845, Bishop Barron repeatedly refused a diocese, preferring
to devote himself to the humble labors of the mission, first at Philadelphia,
thon at St. Louis, and finally in Florida. Ho was at Savannah in the sum-
mer of 1854, when the yellow fever broke out with fearful violence ; and
for two weeks ho devoted himself with boundless zeal to bear to the afflicted
all the consolations of religion. He was at last seized himself, and Bishop
Gartland of Savannah lavished every care on him at his house, when a ter-
rible hurricane unroofed it and left the holy invalid exposed to the fury of
the elements. Hastily transferred to the house of a pious Catholic in Savan-
nah, the first Bishop of both Guineas died a martyr of charity on the 12th of
September, 1854, and on the 30th of the same month Bicihop Gartland fol-
lowed him to heaven, another victim of his apostolic zeal. The Eev. John
Kelly, the companion of Bishop Barron at Cape Palmas, is now pastor of
Jersey City. To his kindness wc arc indebted for most of the details which
we have been able to give as to this most interesting mission on the coast of
Africa.

140

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

I-; !

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:!:■!• 1

I'i :

wlio have improved their education by their travels abroad, as
well as they who have merely acquired the very rudiments of
knowledge at home ; the virtuous women who influence that so-
ciety which they decorate, and yielding to the benevolence of
their hearts, desire to extend useful knowledge; the public press;
the very bench of public justice, have been all influenced by ex-
traordinary efforts directe<l against us : so that from the very
highest place in our land to all its remotest borders, we are ex-
hibited as what we are not, and charged with maintaining what
we detest. Repetition has given to those statements a semblance
of evidence ; and groundless assertions, remaining almost uncon-
tradicted, wear the appearance of admitted and irrefragable truth.
. . . Not only are the misrepresentations of which Vi^e complain
propagated so as to affect the mature, but, with a zeal worthy of
a better cause, and which some persons have exhibited in contrast
with our seeming apathy, the mind of the very infant is predis-
posed against us by the recitals of the nursery, and the schoolboy
can scarcely find a book in which some one or more of our insti-
tutions or practices is not exhibited far otherwise than it really is,
and greatly to our disadvantage. The entire system of education
is thus tinged throughout its whole course, and history itself has
been distorted to our serious injury."*

The two councils over which Archbishop Whitfield had the
glory of presiding, and which illustrate the period of his short
episcopacy, displayed the dignity and conciliating spirit of the
venerable metropolitan. The sessions were conducted with an
order and unanimity which gave general satisfaction. Before
these august assemblies the prelates of the United States had
only a very imperfect knowledge of each other ; they were united
only by the common sentiment of respect which the episcopal
character inspired ; but after deliberating together on the gravest

« ■ . ■ i — .. .. , . .. .. .... , , „

* Notioo of tlio Eev. James Whitfield ; Catholic Magazine, iv. 461.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

141

;ls abroad, jw
rudimenis of
ence that so-
inevolence of
public press;
Lienced by ex-
■om the very
s, we are ex-
Qtaining what
s a semblance
almost uncon-
ragablo truth,
v/e complain
seal worthy of
;ed in contrast
ant is predis-
[the schoolboy
3 of our insti-
an it really is,
1 of education
;ory itself has

field had the
of his short
spirit of the
cted with aa
tion. Before
d States had
Y were united
he episcopal
In the gravest

ic, iv. 461.

interests of the Church, after learning to esteem and love each
otlior, while exchanging opinions often difterent, but always based
on the desire of the general good, the bishops separated to bear
to their several dioceses sentiments of sincercst friendship and
esteem for each other. The deliberations of the Councils were
very important in the eyes of the Catholic population ; they con-
trasted with the tumultuous assemblies of I'rotestautism, and such
was the veneration which they inspired, that three celebrated
jurists, admitted once before the bishops to give an opinion on
some points relating to the civil law of the land, left the Council
full of respect and wonder. " We have," they said, " appeared
before solemn tribunals of justice, but have never had less assur-
ance, or felt less confidence in ourselves, than when we entered
that augast assembly."*

During the whole period of his administration, Archbishop
Whitfield took a lively interest in the three female religious com-
munities in his diocese, and showed his active solicitude, especially
for the Carmelites, because they had to undergo trials which
compromised the very existence of their convent. We have said
in a previous chapter that the first Carmelite nuns arrived in Ma-
ryland in 1*790, under the direction of Father Charles Neale.
Iheir subsequent history was there traced, and we alluded briefly
to their struggles, and to the interest which Archbishop Whit-
field had always taken in that devoted community of pious con-
templatives. Their income had become so reduced, that it was
impossible for the convent to subsist : no generous founder ap-
peared to enable them, by his alms, to continue their life of aus-
terity and prayer. A dissolution seemed unavoidable, but the
archbishop advised a removal to Baltimore, and such a modifica-

* Archbishop Whitfield's letter of January 28th, t830 ; Annales de la
Propagation, iv. 243. The three jurists were Koger B. Taney, John Scott,
and William G. Read. The first ia now Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court
of the United States.

■:!■

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if .1

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142

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

tion of tlieir rule ns would enable tlicin to join tbo other sister-
hoods in tho great work of teacliini? the young of their own sex.
At their desire, he applied to the Holy Sec, and, as wo have seen,
obtained the necessary dispensation. After their transfer to Balti-
more, the good nuns found in Archbishop Whittle', i a generous
father. Their school, opened soon after arrival, was continued
till 1852, and proved a source of incalculable blessings to the
Catholics of that city.

Soon after their arrival, another of the venerable foundresses,
Sister Aloysia Matthews, expired, on the 12th of November, 1833,
at the advanced age of eighty-one, after a life of eminent piety
and devotedness to her rule. Since their stay in Baltimore, they
have had among their excellent chaplains, the Rev. Matthew
Herard, a French cleigyman, who not only guided them by his
counsels, but aided them with his means to erect their present
choir and chapel, and left them an annuity of several himdred
dollars for the support of a chaplain. After his time, they were
for some years directed by the talented and zealous Rev. John
B. Gildea, of whom we shall have occasion to speak elsewhere,
and by the Rev. Hugh Griffin.

Since the close of their school, the Sisters of Our Lady of
Mount Carmel, whose community now numbers twenty professed
Sisters and one novice, see once more renewed the trials which
encompassed the latter days of their stay at Port Tobacco.
Their certain regular income is scarcely more than a hundred
dollars; for all else they rely on Providence, which will, we
trust, ere long raise them up a generous founder to endow their
house, and enable our country to possess, for many a day, the
blessings which such a community must bring.

Doubtless Archbishop Whitfield, had he foreseen all, would
have devoted means to so good a work, for he lavished his for-
tune on the diocese to which the voice of Peter had called him.
The Cathedral of Baltimore especially shows the effects of his zeal

■•^

t !

IN THE UNITED STATES.

143

3thor sister-
•ir own sex.
0 havo seen,
ifer to Bulti-
. a generous
s continued
■inscs to the

foundresses,
jmber, 1833,
ninent piety
Itimorc, they
i3V. Matthew
them by his
their present
3ral hundred
ie, they were
lis Rev. John
c elsewhere,

)ur Lady of
nty professed

trials which
ort Tobacco,
a hundred
ich will, we

endow their
y a day, the

n all, woiild
shed his for-
1 called him.
t',» of his zeal

and liberality in the construction of one of the towers, which was
began and completed during his administration. Tiio prelate
gave also considerable sums for the erection of the archiepiscopal
residence, near the cathedral; and finally, he built, entirely at his
own expense, the beautiful church of St. James at Baltimore.
Archbishop Whitfield laid the corner-stone on the Ist of Mfiy,
1833, and on the same day, in the following year, lie solemnly
celebrated the ceremony of the consecration, attended by a nu-
merous clergy. But the archbishop lived only just long enough
to see the noble pile completed. In course of the summer of
1834 he was advised by his physicians to visit the Springs to im-
prove his fast declining health. All the eflforts of science failed
to arrest the progress of the disease, and Archbishop Whitfield
expired on the 19th of October, 1834, in the sixty-fourth year of
liis age. Ilis biographer has given us the following portrait of
him :

" Of Archbishop Whitfield may be said what can bo said of
few — that he entered the career of honors in wealth and left it
poor. Prudence and energy were traits in his character very
observable to those who had an opportunity of duly appreciating
it, and many acts of his administration have been censured, be-
cause, through a spirit of charity and forbearance towards his
neighbor, he abstained from exposing to public view the grounds
that justified and compelled such a course of proceeding. If
there was more or less austerity in his manner, it did not prevent
him from cherishing with paternal feelings and promoting by fre-
quent acts of benevolence the happiness of the indigent and the
orphan. Kond of retirement and indifferent to the opinions of
the world, he seemed particularly solicitous to merit the favor of
Him ' who seeth in secret,' and is always prepared to awaid the
crown of justice to his faithful servants."*

* Cfttholic Magazine, viii. 24-38,

^i I

; 1 1

li'i
Wr'iM

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141

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Wo sliiiU add but two words to this portniit : it is, that by
convoking the enrly councils of liultitnorc, and directing their
deliberations with tlio rnoHt remarkable «liHtinction, Archbishop
Whitfield contributed most amply and eflicaciously to organize
the Church in the United States. Among the papers of Bishop
Brut6 we have found a note in tiiat prelate's handwriting, which
gives the exact number of priests in each of the twelve dioceses
of the United States, on the 20th of October, 1833. They num-
bered then, in all, three huu<lred and eight ecclesiastics — seventy-
two American born, ninety-one Irisli, seventy-three French, seven-
teen Italians, thirty-nine Belgians and Germans, some English
and Spanish, and one Pole. This diversity of origin undoubtedly
increases the difficulty of creating among the clergy a homoge-
neous spint; yet the Catlu»lic spirit rules in all its glory, and
neutralizes the different nationalities. Moreover, the population
of the United States is only a mixture of all races. This forms
its distinctive characteristic, and the clergy only renews the vaned
origin of the nations. Of these three hundred and eight ecclesi-
astics, one hundred and seventy had been ordained in the United
States, making over half the whole number ; but this result is
not so consoling as might be at first supposed, if it be remarked
that only seventy-two are Americans. The bishops who go to
Europe generally bring back seminarians, who receive holy orders
in the United States. Among the names of the ecclesiastics there
were forty-three Jesuits, fourteen Sulpitians, ten Dominicans,
twelve Lazarists, and three Augustinians ; and we shall soon see
the Rederaptorists and the Oblates swell the ranks of the regular
clergy, especially precious in a mission land.* ,

♦ Catliolic Magazine, iv. 4C3.
4*

IN THE UNITED STATED

146

t is, thiit by
reeling thoir
, Archbishop
J to orgfinize
rs of Bishop
riling, which
^elve dioceses
They num-
ic8 — seventy-
French, sevon-
sorao English
I undoubtedly
gy a homoge-
its glory, and
he population
,. This forms
ews the vai-ied
[ eight ecclesi-
in the United
this result is
be remarked
ps who go to
ve holy orders
< siastics there
Dominicans,
shall soon see
lof the regular

CHAPTER XI.

DIOOESK OF nAI/riMOUK (1884-1840).

MoitTlcv. Sftniuel Eccleston, D. D., ftlth ArolililHhopof Bftltlmore— Tli* Brothsni of th«
Christian Schoolst— The KtMlomptorlsta— The Oerman CathollcD— Tho Lazarlsts— Third
Council of Baltlraoro— Now Kplscopal Sees— Fourth Council of Baltimore — Bishop
Forbln-Janson In Atiierlcu— DI()co8e8 of Itlchinond und Wheeling, aud a glance at re-
ligion in Virginia

Before sickness had seriously enfeebled Archbishop Whitfield,
that prelate and his suffragans had been engaged in proposing to
the Holy See an ecclesiastic whose zeal and piety fitted him to
govern a diocese so important as that of Baltimore ; and such a
person they had found in the Rev. Samuel Eccleston, President
of St. Mary's College. The Propm; mda approved this choice,
and in the summer of 1834 Arch I > .shop Whitfield received letters
apostolic, nominating Mr. Eccl(.'>i.'H Bishop of Thermia in partib^is,
and Coadjutor of the Archb shop of Baltimore, with the right of
succession. The prelate t>ltx-t was consecrated in the Cathedral
of Baltimore on the 14th of September in Uie same year, Arch-
bishop Whitfield performing the ceremony. But that worthy
dign'tary soon sunk under the weight of his infirmities, and at ^is
death, which occurred on the 19th of October, 1834, Dr. Eccles-
ton became Archbishop of Baltimore. In the following year he
received the pallium, the complement of his metropoUtau dignity;
and he was at the same time, as his two predecessors had been,
invested with the administration of the See of Richmond, for
which the Holy See appointed no bishop till 1841.

Samuel Eccleston was born on the 27th of June, 1801, in Kent
county, on the eastern shore of Maryland. His grandfather, Sir

r-i^WF*

146

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

fi'i '

kin' •■

i !i li

John Eccleston, Lad emigrated thither from England some years
before the Revolutionary War. His parents occupied an honora-
ble position in society, and belonged to the Protestant Episcopal
Church, in which, too, young Samuel was educated. But while
still young his mother became a widow, and married a worthy
Catholic ; and this event opened to him a horizon of light and
grace, considerably developed in the sequel by his education.
The young man was placed at St. Mary's College, Baltimore, and
distinguished himself in all branches of study, at the same time
that he learned to know religion. He there embraced the Cath-
olic faith while still at college, and was so deeply impressed at
the death of one of his venerable professors, that he resolved to
devote himself to the ecclesiastical state. He entered the serai-
nary attached to the college on the 23d of May, 1819, but was
scarcely inclosed in this retreat of his choice when he was beset
with pressing solicitations from his kindred and friends to abandon
a career in their eyes contemptible, and to return to the world, of
which they displayed the attractions. No consideration could
alter Eccleston's step ; on the contrary, temptations confirmed
him in his pious design, and he received the tonsui*e in the course
of the year 1820. "While pursuing his theological studies, he
rendered useful service in the college as professor. Deacon's
orders were conferred on him in 1823, and on the 24th of April,
1825, he was raised to ecclesiastical dignity. Five months after
his ordination the Rev. Mr. Eccleston repaired to France, and
spent almost two years in '' , Sulj^itian solitude at Issy. Re-
turning home in 1827, after visiting Ireland and England, he
brought back an immense fund of acquired knowledge and ar-
dent zeal for the cause of religion. Appointed Vice-president of
St. Mary's College, then President of that institution, he dis-
charged with remarkable success these important functions, when
the confidence of the Holy See selected him for the Episcopate.
On his succession, Archbishop Eccleston found religion flour-

t'm

IN THE UNITED STATES.

147

i some years
id an honora-
ant Episcopal
1. But wbile
L-ied a worthy
L of light and
his education.
Baltimore, and
the same time
aced the Cath-
y impressed at
he resolved to
tered the semi-
, 1819, but was
m he was beset
snds to abandon
to the world, of
^deration could
tions confirmed
ire in the course
;ical studies, he
-ssor. Deacon's
24th of April,
e months after
to France, and
le at Issy. Re-
Ind England, he
wledge and ar-
ice-president of
^itution, he dis-
[functions, when
le Episcopate,
religion flour-

ishing in the diocese of Baltimore. Ecclesiastical seminaries, re-
ligious institutions, several houses for the education of youth of
both sexes, and a numerous clergy for the exercise of the ministry
— these resources showed themselves only in Maryland ; Catho-
licity is better spread there than in most of the States of the
Union. The archbishop felt, however, that the growing wants of
the faithful required renewed efforts ; and he took to heart to in-
crease the facilities for religious instruction. During his admin-
istration, the Sisters of the Visitation at Georgetown opened three
new schools — at Baltimore, Frederick, and Washington. The
Brothers of the Christian Schools, invited to Baltimore, opened a
novitiate at Calvert Hall ; and before the prelate's death, these
four schools were frequented by eleven hundred scholars, while
the pious teachers of youth gave at the same time their care to
an orphan asylum containing sixty-four children.* Other schools
were directed by the Brothers of St. Patrick, who, at the same
time, managed a model farm, where a manual-labor school was
founded in 1848 by the Rev. James Dolan, pastor of St. Patrick's,

* The Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools was founded in
1679, by the venerable John Baptist de la Salle, and approved by Pope Bon-
edict XIII. The professed liouse was first at St. Yon, near Arpajon, whence
the Brothers have often been called Brothers of St. Yon. At present, how-
ever, the General resides at Passy, near Paris. The govjirnmeiit of the insti-
tute is divided into nineteen provinces — ten in France, Algiers, and the
colonies, and the other nine in Belgium, Prussia, Switzerland, Savoy, Pied-
mont, the United States, Canada, the Levant, and Malaysia. England will
Boon be organized as a province. In these provinces there are seven hun-
dred and fifty establishments, one thousand three liundred and fifty-three
schools, four thousand one hundred and twenty-six classes, and two hundred
and seventy-five thousand pupils. The United States form a part of tho
province of Canada, the central house being at Montreal. The first estab-
lishment in the United States was that at Baltimore in 1846. Two years
after. New York also possessed these Brothers, in consequence of the efforts
and sacrifices of the worthy Father Annet Lafont, pastor of the French
church in that city. At the present time the Christian Brothers have schools
in the dioceses of Baltimore, New York, Brooklyn, Albany, St. Louis, New
Orleans, and Detroit.

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148

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

!:■ »

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Baltimore * In the city of Baltimore the churches of St. Alphon-
sus, St. Vincent, St. Joseph, St. Peter, St. Michael, and the new
Lazarist church, the Carmelite and Visitation chapels, were
erected during the episcopacy of Archbishop Eccleston. In the
interior of the diocese, ten churches were also built by his care,
while the number of ecclesiastics was almost doubled, in conse-
quence of the establishment of the Redemptorists and Lazarists,
with whom the prelate's zeal succeeded in gifting Maryland.

The Priests of the Most Holy Redeemer exercised their minis-
try principally among the German population, who form a con-
siderable proportion of the Catholic body in the United States.
During the period from 1840 to 1850, the emigration to the
United States was composed annually of about two hundred
thousand Irish and eighty thousand German immigrants. For
some time the respective numbers of the two nations have
changed. More liberal laws, emigration to Australia, and the
fear of a religious persecution in the United States, have sensibly
checked the movement which bore the Irish to this country ;
while the consequences of insurrection in Germany in 1848, and
the impoverishment of the countiy brought on by these troubles,
have drawn to the United States the Germanic population. Ac-
cordingly, in 1854, the number of Germans landed in the United
States amounted to two hundred and twenty thousand, and that
of the Irish sank to one hundred and one thousand. Among
these Germans, about a fourth or a fifth are Catholics from Ba-
varia, Saxony, Baden, the Rhine Provinces, and Wirtemburg.

* The Brotliers of St. Patrick were founded in 1808, in the county Carlow
in Ireland, by tlie Veiy Rev. Dr. Delany, to secure a Christian education to
the yung. Tliis society acquired some extension in Ireland, and in 1848 it
had three houses. At tlie request of the Rev. James Dolan, three Brothers
of this society came to Baltimore in the fall of 1846, and there assumed the
direction of the school attached to St. Patrick's. They opened a novitiate,
and took care of the model farm, established soon after at Govestown to
teach the orpliaus farming. In 1853, however, the Brothers left the diocese,
while the Brothers of the Christian Schools have extended remarkably.

*' :l '

IN THE UNITED STATES.

149

3f St. Alphon-
and the new
chapels, were
sston. In the
It by his care,
bled, in conse-
and Lazarists,
Slaryland.
,ed their minis-
o form a con-
United States,
igration to the
t, two hundred
migrants. For
» nations have
straha, and the
5, have sensibly
) this country;
ly in 1848, and
f these troubles,
opulation. Ac-
d in the United
usand, and that
isand. Among
,olics from Ba-
,d Wirtemburg.

the county Carlow
stian edvication to
and, and in 1848 it
Ian, three Brothers
there assumed the
opened a novitiate,
r at Govestown to
ers left the diocese,
d remarkably.

As may be imagined, episcopal solicitude was early turned to the
spiritual wants of so many good people ; yet until 1840 they had
been but poorly provided for in this respect. The American
clergy did not understand the language of these new-comers, and
they themselves felt little inclined to visit churches where the
English instruction was unintelligible to them. In some dioceses
in the West, German Dominicans and Franciscans attended a
certain number of parishes. Other churches Avere formed under
the pastoral chnrge of German secular priests ; but these came
from their dioceses without mission, and did not always possess
the high character due to their calling, and often expirienced in-
surmountable diificulties in governing their flocks. The laity,
imbued with C '— regational ideas, incessantly endeavored to
usurp the temp.-:: .dministration, deliberate on the choice of
their pastors, elect their priest or dismiss him at will, and the
rights of the bishops were of no avail against this sectarian obsti-
nacy. More than one church was scarcely built when it was in-
terdicted by the diocesan authority.

The establishment of the Redemptorists in the United States,
due to the negotiations of Archbishop Eccleston, has effected a
most consoling change in this state of things. The pious sons of
St. Alphonsus Liguori have very flourishing provinces in Ger-
many. In 1841 a colony from the province of Austria was
installed at Baltimore. It has since then received successively
new reinforcements, and is now a distinct province, containing
upwards of sixty Fathers, scattered in residences over seven dio-
ceses— New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, New Or-
leans, Detroit, Buffalo, and Rochester. Success has generally
crowned the efforts of their apostolical zeal. The German Cath-
olics are no longer the object of isolated efforts. A powerful
organization now devotes itself to their spiritual succor, and the
Redemptorists have had the talent of bending these diflicult
minds to an obedience any thing but Calvinistic. If the Germans

I 1-

m i

150

THE CATHOLIC CHUKCH

have lost what some would call independence of reason, they
have gained in devotion, which is clear profit, for piety ill accords
with those stuhlt.. n wills which oppose their bishop as well as
their pastor. The German parishes are now distinguished for
their regularity. The celebration of the ofiices of the Church is
even performed with a pomp that contrasts singularly with the
simplicity of worship in the Irish and American churches. The
Catholics of Ireland and England, so long deprived of the public
exercise of their religion, often able to hear only Low Mass in
secret, know not how to mingle their voices with the chants of
the Church. The generations which have grown up since the act
of emancipation in England or the revolution in the United
States, do not know the advantage of religious melodies ; the
chill of Protestantism seems to have settled on the brow of Cath-
olics living amid the Babel of sectaries, and the traveller who
visits the Catholic churches in Englan'^., Scotland, Ireland, and
the United States, is struck by the absence of the Gregorian rites.
A choir of females grouped a-^ound the organ alone undertakes to
execute, as best it may, some Mass of modern composition, in the
presence of a mute auditory, mdifferent to these accents. The
Germans, on the contrary, musical by nature, mingle their sono-
rous voices with the consecrated chant of the ritual ; the whole
people, blending with the prayers of the clergy, improvise choral
Masses of the finest efiect ; and the renown of their ceremonial
attracts to their churches in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New
York numbers of the curious, who always leave thei ^dified.

The Redemptorists do not confine their ministry to the Ger-
mans. They give missions and preach in many parishes, and
these exercises revive piety in the breasts of the faithful. Their
novitiates have received many converted Protestant ministers or
ecclesiastics, who have become exemplary priests, and whose elo-
quent words exercise a notable influence on their former co-re-
liglonists. Their Provincial resides at the convent in Baltimore.

lii'

IN THE UNITED STATES.

151

[ reason, they
lety ill accords
lop as well as
tinguislied for
the Church is
ilavly with the
hui'ches. The
I of the public
r Low Mass in
the chants of
ip since the act
iu the United
melodies ; the
brow of Cath-
3 traveller who
id, Ireland, and
jrregorian rites,
e undertakes to
position, in the
accents. The
fjle their sono-
ual ; the whole
oprovise choral
leir ceremonial
phia, and New

dified.
y to the Ger-
parishes, and
'aithful. Their
it ministers or
and whose elo-
former co-re-
it in Baltimore.

The novitiate is at Annapolis, in a house of Charles Carroll of
CarroUlon, generously given to the Redemptorists by the grand-
daughters of that patriarch of independence, the last of the
signers, and cousin of the fiist Archbishop of Baltimore. The
Order which had previously failed to obtain a permanent footing
iu the diocese of Cincinnati, was thus secured.

The pious Congregation of the Priests of the Mission, or La^a-
rists, was also invited to Maryland by Archbishop Eccleston, and
now direct the Sisters of Charity of Emmitsburg according to the
rules of St. Vincent de Paul, it was not till 1850 that three
Lazarists from Missouri came to the diocese of Baltimore ; but the
congregation had existed from 1817 in Upper Louisiana, now
Missouri. When Bishop Dubourg of New Orleans was conse-
crated in 1815 at Rome, he obtained some Lazarists of the Roman
province for his diocese. The Rev. Felix de Andreis was the
Superior of the little company which set out for America, and the
Rev. Joseph Rosati, subsequently Bishop of St. Louis, succeeded
as Superior on his death. In a letter from Mr. Rosati to the
Abbe Brute, dated from St. Mary's Seminary at the Barrens,
January 29, 1822, we read: "On our arrival at Baltimore from
Europe we were only four of our congregation, three priests and

* The Society of Missionaries of the Most Holy Redeemer was founded in
1732, by St. Alphonsus Liguori, in the kingdom of Naples, with the appro-
bation of Pope Clement XII. The rule was promulgated June 21st, 1742.
The cong^regation has since extended widely, and out of Italy embraces the
provinces of Austria, Belgi m, Germany, the United States, France, Eng-
land, and Holland. Till lately the Kcctor-major resided at Nocera, near
Naples. The Vica'*-ironeral who administered the transalpine provinces had
some duties of subordination to the Kector-major. But by a decree of the
Congregation of Bishops and Kegulars of October 8th, 1854, the following
dispositions were made :

1st. A house of the Order, ns it exists out of Italy, shall bo established at
Rome. 2d. The Superior-general shall reside at Rome. 3d. The General
Chapter of the Order shall meet at Rome.

St. Alphonsus was canonized by Pope Gregory XVI. in 1889.

The present Provincial of the Redemptorists in the United States is Father
Hafkcnscheid.

I' :!i

II '

i: it^

15?.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

a brother. AVe arc now nineteen — ten priests, three clerics, and
six brothers. Our gentlemen iu Italy take a great interest in
us, r*nd send us some subjects, and others have joined us in
America."

The province of Italy continues to assist the missions of the
United States, and many of the Lazarists in the dioceses of St.
Louis, New Orleans, and Baltimore are Italians. This congrega-
tion has given the American Church several prelates — Bishop
Rosati, already named, and also Bishops De Neckere, Odin, and
Timon, They direct the Seminary of New Orleans and one of
those in the diocese of St. Louis ; and by becoming the directors
of the Sisters of Charity of Emmitsburg they extend their influ-
ence over all parts of America.*

During the term of his episcopate, Archbishop Eccleston was
called upon to preside over five of the Provincial Councils of Bal-
timore, and he discharged his important duties with equal wisdom
and dignity, exercising the most cordial hospitality towards his
brother prelates. His suffragans accordingly resolved to show
their gratitude by offering the Archbishop of Baltimore, in their
collective name, the rich vestments and plate of an episcopal
chapel.

The third Provincial Council met at Baltimore on the 16th of
April, 1837, and eight bishops there sat around their metropoli-

* The Congregation of Priests of the Mission was founded by St. Vincent
de Paul, and approved successively by Joiin Francis de C jndi, Archbishop
of Paris, April 26th, 1626; by a bull of Pope Urban Vlil., January, 1632;
and by letters patent of Louis XHL, May, 1642. In the last-mentioned yeai,
the Priests of the Mission founded a house at Eomo, and since then a prov-
ince of the Congregation has had its seat at Rome. The main end of these
priests is to labor for their own perfection, to devote themselves to the sal-
vation of poor country people by means of missions, and to exert themselves
for the spiritual advancement of ecclesiastics. In 1632 they took possession
of the establishment of St. Lazarus at Paris, an old priory of the Knights
Hospitallers of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem. Although the Priests of the Mis-
sion were dispossessed of their house of St. Lazarus in 1792, they continuo
to be generally known by the name of Lazarists.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

153

clerics, and
t interest in
joined us in

3sion3 of the
:jceses of St.
lis congrega-
ates — Bishop
re, Odin, and
5 and one of
the directors
d their iuflu-

Sccleston was
uncils of Bal-
equal wisdom
r towards his
ved to show
lore, in their
an episcopal

the 16th of
[ir metropoli-

|by St. Vincent
li, Archbishop
lanuary, 1632 ;
lentioned yeai,
Ic then a prov-
In end of these
Ives to the aal-

art themaelvea
J)ok possession
if the Kniglita
Vs of the Mis-

Ithcy continue

tan. At tl.o first private session, the following letter horn the
Bishop of Detroit was submitted :

" Most Revehend Fathers

" In Provincial Synod at Baltimore assembled :

" It is known tliat I reluctantly accepted the episcopal consecra-
tion, and I soon learned by experience that the erection and ad-
ministrsti^ i of a nev/ diocese, with its numberless difficulties and
cares springing up on every side, were a burden far too great for
me to bear, and I have accordingly frequently entertained the in-
tention of resigning my diocese into the hands of Ills Holiness
the Sovereign Pontift', or at lea^fc of soliciting a capable coadjutor
from the Holy See. This i'.tention I desire to carry out by these
presents, and for this purpose I have empowered my two actual
Vicars-general, Rev. Messrs. Badin and De Bruyn, to exercise
joint jurisdiction in my absence, until further arrangements are
made.

" Such is the matter which I deem proper to lay before you,
Most Reverend Fathers, and I beg you to excuse mo "'' I cannot
take part in this Council, and also to aid me to obtain the suc-
cessful realization of my desires, if it shall seem good in our Lord.

" f Frederick Rfesfe, Bishop of Detroit.
"St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, April 15, 1837."

Afte-' deliberating on this letter, the Fathers of the Council re-
solved to a the Holy Father to accept Bishop Rese's resigna-
tion, and to appoint a successor to his See. The Propaganda,
however, by a letter dated September 2d, 1837, intimated that in
this matter His Hdiness deferred a decision as to the acceptance
of the resignation and the appointment of a successor, until Bishop
Rese had been heard in person. That prelate accordingly went
to Rome, and by a letter dated December 19th, 1840, the Con-
gregation of the Propaganda announced that the Rev. J. B. Odin

i r*f1fi

■r.p

1 "

t '

1 •

r-. i

fell!

] !

154:

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

had bcjn appointed Bishop Administrator of Detroit, Bishop
I* jz6's resignation being ccepted. Mr. Odin did not accept the
functions, and at last, on the 21st of November, 1841, the lit.
Kev. Peter Paul Lefevre* was consecrated Bishop of Tela, Coad-
jutor and Administrator of Detroit. Bishop Roze resided at
Rome till the revolution of 1840, on which he retired, we be-
lieve, to Germany, his native country.

The Fathers of the Council in 183*7 proposed to the Holy 8eo
the erection of new dioceses — at Nashville foi the State of Ten-
nessee, at Natchez for the State of Mississippi, at Dubuque for
the Territory of Wisconsin, and at Pittsburg for the western part
of the State of Pennsylvania. The Congregation of the Propa-
ganda, by letter of September 2, 1837, transmitted the Pontifical
briefs, of the date of July 28th, founding three new dioceses, and
appointing to the See of Natchez, the Rev. Thomas Heyden ; to
that of Dubuque, the Rev. Matthew Loras ; and to that of Nash-
ville, the Rev. Richard Miles. Tix"^ division of the diocese of
Philadelphia, by the erection of a See at Pittsburg, was deferred,
and a coadjutor was given to Bishop Dubois of New York, in the
person of Rev. John Hughes, then pastor of St. Mary's church,
Philadelphia. The Rev. Thomas Heyden refused the episcopal
dignity, and it was not till the month of December, 1840, that in
consequence of his declining it, the Rev. John J. Chanche was
called to the See of Natchez.f

On the 17th of May, 1840, the fourth Provincial Council

* Kt. Eev. Peter Paul Lefevre was bom on the 30th of April, 1804, at
Eouler, West Flanders.

t Rev. Thomas Heyden, a native of this country, ordained at Baltimore
in 182,1, is now Vicar-general of Pittsburg, and resides at Bedford, Pennsyl-
vania.

Rt. Rev. Matthew Loras was born at Lyons, on the 30th of August, 1794,
and came to America in 1829 with Bishop Portier. At the time of his elec-
tion he was Vicar-general of Mobile, and was consecrated at Mobile on the
10th of December, 1837, by Bishop Portier, assisted by Bishop Blanc.

Rt. Rev. Richard Pius Milea was born in Maryland, May 17, 1791, and was

IN THE UNITED STATES.

155

roit, Bishop
t accept the
341, the Kt.
■ Tela, Coacl-
3 resided at
tired, we be-

ho Holy See
itate of Tt'ii-
Dubuque for
western part
•f the Propa-
:he rontifical
dioceses, and
Heyden; to
hat of Nash-
e diocese of
was deferred,
Ycirk, in the
iry's church,
he episcopal
1840, that in
ihanche was

Icial Council

ipril, 1804, at

at Baltimore
|ford, Pennsyl-

1 Auj?ust, 1794,

le of his elec-

iMobile on the

Bhmc.

17ai, and was

opened at Baltimore. Thirteen bishops were present, and among
them the pious Bishop of Nancy, Monseigneur do Forbin-Janson.
At a preparatory meeting, held on the 14th of May, the Ame i-
can prelates had unanimously resolved to invite their French
brother to assist at th<Mr sessions with a deliberative and decisive
vote, and thus acknowledged the services rendered to religion in
the United States by the ardent zeal of Bishop Forbin-Janson.
The missions which he gave in various dioceses produced the
most abundant fruits. His eloquence and liberality founded a
French church iu New York, and Canada still remembers the
wonders of his evangelical charity and the touching ^ ^remony of
planting a cross a hundred feet high on the mountain of Beloeil,
whence the august sign of salvation casta its protecting shadow
over the surrounding fields and villages. America is also in-
debted to him for the organization of ecclesiastical retreats, and
never indeed will the name of the holy prelate cease to be men-
tioned with reverence.*

Provincial of the Order of St. Dominic prior to his consecration, which took
place at Bardstown, September 16, 1838.

Rt. Eev. John Joseph Chanche was born at Baltimore, on the 4th of Oc-
tober, 1795, of French parents, refugees from St. Domingo; was ordained,
in 1819, and became a member of the Society of St. Su'pico. He was conse-
crated Bishop of Natchez, at Baltimore, on the 11th of March, 1841, and
died July 22, 1852.

* Charles Augustus M.nry Joseph de Forbin-Janson, born at Paris in 1785,
was admitted at the age of twenty-one as an auditor in the Council of State,
but soon abandoning this career, he entered the Seminary of St. Sulpice,
and was ordained at Chambory in 1811. He remained in Savoy till the rea-
toration ; returning then to France, he devoted himself, with Mr. Rauzan,
to the establishment of missions. He preached with admirable zeal through-
out France, founded the house of missionaries of Mt. Valerien, made a pil-
grimage to the Holy Land, and eflfected many conversions in the East,
especially at Smj-rna. 'Appointed Bishop of Nancy, ho was prevented by
political intrigues from accomplishing all the good he meditated for his dio-
cese, and at last, to his regret, was compelled to leave it. His voyage to the
United States occurred in 1839, and he there effected immense good by his
missions in Louisiana, New York, and Canada. Returning to France in
1842, his last years were consecrated to founding the admirable Society of

' ;::: ir

! m

I I 'i'''^'U

1 Pill I

n 1

156

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

The Council of Bultitnore, honored by the pr^aence of a noble
confessor of the faith, could not but fool a deep sympathy in other
confessors, whose devotedness to the cJutholic faith was then re-
warded by a dungeon. The American bishops addressed a warm
letter of felicitation and encourngement to ( 'hiiido Augustus de
.Droste do Vischering, Bishop of Cologne, and to Martin de Dun-
nin, Archbishop of Posen, thus showing that the lieart of the
Church everywhere throbs with the sanif^ life, and that the trials
of religion in Europe are felt even in the New World.

The Fathers of the Council, by their fifth decree, very earnestly
recommended the formation of temperance societies among the
Catholics ; and in fact abstiuen.ce from spirituous liquors is the
only means of preserving the people from the dangers of intoxica-
tion, by sheltering them from the misery and vice which are the
consequences of this degrading vice. It is the besetting sin of
the Iiish laborer, and it is only when his conscience is bound by
an oath of honor, and he belongs to an association consecrated
by religion, that he has power to resist the ]»oisonous attrac-
tions of liquor. The celebrated Father Theobald Mathew did not
confine his labors to Ireland. In 1849 he came to America, and
spent two years and a half constantly preaching temperance and
enrolling thousands of the faithful under the banner of sobriety.
Canada had already felt the advantage of such an association,
and Father Chiniquy, the Apostle of Temperance, effected in his
native province wonders equal to those of Father Mathew in Ire-
land.

The Council carefully examined the petition of the Catholic
inhabitants of Springfield, Illinois, for a bishop ; but the place di**

the Holy Childhood, for the salvation of Chinese infants. Ho died at Pro^/
ence, July 12, 1844. See notice on Monseigneur de Forbin-Janson in th*
first number of the Annals of the Holy Childhood, January, 1846. Elog»
Funebre de Monseigneur de Forbin-Janson, par Lacordalre. Conferen-
ces, i. 455.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

157

c of IV noble
athy in other
was then ro-
essed a warm

Avigustus de
irtin de Dun-
heart of the
hat tlio trials
d.

rery earnestly
s among the
iquors is the
rs of intoxica-
vhich are tlie
netting sin of
e is bound by
\ consecrated
\onou8 attrac-
rithew did not
merica, and

perance and
of sobriety,
association,

ffected in his

lathew in Ire-

Ithe Catholic
Ithe place di^

died at Prov
l-Jonson in th*
/, 1846. ElogP
iro. Conferen-

not RtHMu l() them suflicicntly important to bo created tho centre
of a diocese. From the same motives, the American prelates
were of opinion that it would be well to transfer to Louisville the
See of liardstown, as the latter town remuined stationary, whilo
the former, situated on tho Ohio, in a very advantageous position
for trade, beheld \U population rapidly incrmsing. The Pontifi-
cal rescript authorizing this translation was received by Bishop
Flaget early in 1841, and the venerable prelate, though not with-
out lively regret, left the cradle of religion in Kentucky.

The Congregation of the I'ropaganda, by letter of December
19th, 1840, made known that the diocese of Richmond, compris-
ing the State of Virginia, would cease in future to be adminis-
tered by the Archbishop of Baltimore; and that the Sovereign
Pontiff had appointed the Rev. Richard V. Whelan to that See.
This clergyman, a native of Maryland, had for several years
evangelized the ungrateful mission of Virginia, and we may here
say a few words of the humble beginnings of Catholicity in the
Old Dominion.

In 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh sent out from England, at his own
expense, an expedition which took nominal possession of cei'tain
parts of the American coast ; and on the return of the vessels,
Queen Elizabeth herself g.ave her new possessions the name of
Virginia, in honor of her title of Virgin Queen, which it is certain
she claimed, but not certain that she deserved. It was not, how-
ever, till 1606 that a colonization society was formed to settle
Virginia, and Captain Jolni Smith, with a royal charter from
James I., landed with one hundred and fifty colonists in May,
1607.* Anglicanism thus planted itself on that shore, and every
new-comer who refused to take the oath of royal supremacy was
expelled, while most severe laws threatened with death the priest,
and especially the Jesuit, hardy enough to appear in Virginia.

* Hildroth, History of the United States, i. 99-185.

loS

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

. :'!"'!

.;!;!;■ ^

l;v ij iii

>! i I

I i !i|

'*;L'I

Tho hour for heaving the cross thillior had not fttnick, and tho
tli'Ht inittsionarit's who appeared wuro tlio prisoiiorH of l'rote.staiit-
isin. Tti 1014 two Froiich Jesuits, Father Peter Biard and
Father Fiiiiioin(»n(l Masse, liaving founded St. Saviour's mission <>ii
the north' ii coast, in what is now the Stato of Maine, Caplaiii
Argal of Virginia destroyed it out of mere hatred of (JathoHcity.
A Jesuit brother was killed, and the two Fathers were taken Jo
Virginia, where tlie governor. Sir Thonjas Dale, for some tinio
deliberated on tlio propriety of consigning them to the execu-
tioner to bo hanged, drawn, and (juartered.

Irish emigrnnts who subse(]uently arrived were forced to leave,
and settled at Montserrat iu the West Indies, long known an .in
Irish colony. Sir George Calvert even was excluded from Vir-
ginia on account of his faith, and for that reason founded his
colony of Maryland.

When the Protestants wliom ho had admitted rose in 1045
against their Catholic fellow-settlers, they seized all the priests
and dragged them in chains to Virginia, where one of them ex-
pired the following year. Such were the first relations of Vir-
ginia with Catholicity and its missionaries; but amid their
IKjraecutions, the pious Fathers doubtless sought to extend around
them the succors of religion, for some Catholics were even then
t«) bo found in Virginia, chiefly as slaves or indented apprentices —
Iiish men and women, torn from their native land and sold into
foreign bondage.

After the Irish struggle in 1641, and the Protestant triumph
which ensued, the Irish Catholics were relentlessly banished, and
the State documents of Cromwell's time enable us to reckon from
fifty thousand to one hundred thousand forcibly transported to
America. Tho majority were given to the settlers in Barbadoes
and Jamaica, but a gi'eat number of women and children were
also sold in Virginia, the men having been pressed into the Pro-
tector's nav)'. In 1652 the Commissaries of the Commonwealth

'■'11=/!;

IN TIIK UMTED 8TATKS.

159

c, and tho
'rotestant-
Vmrd und
mission on
(.', Ciiptuiii
!atliolicily.
! takou to
tonio tinio
ho oxecu-

d to leave,

)\vn an an

from Vir-

)uniled liin

io in \Oiii
[lie priests
them ex-
is of Vir-
mid their
nd around
even then
ronticos —
sold into

- triumph
shed, and
con from
ported to
^arbadoes
ren were
the Pro-
onwealth

ordered " Irish \V(»men to bo nold to merchants and sliippod to
Vir^nia," and these unfortunate females, reduced to tho samo
(•ondition of slavery as African negroes, sank in great nimiben*
under the labors imposed upon them by their nuistcrs. At u
later date another chiss of Irish increased the laboring population
in Virginia — voluntary emigrants, driven from homo by poverty,
and too poor to pay their passage. These bound themselves by
contract to service for a term of years, in order to pay th. vessel.
They were called Redemptioners.

Tho laws of tho colony oppressed them sorely, and doul-tless
compelled many to leave as soon as they were free. Thus in
January, 1041, it was onactod that no Popish rocunant shoidd,
under a penalty of a thousand pounds of tobacco, presume to hold
any office. In the following year the same statute was ro-onacted,
and a clause added requiring priests to leave the colony on five
days' notice. After this the penal spiiit seemed lulled till tho
restoration of Charles; then, in 1601, all who did not attend tho
Protestant Church were made subject to a fine of £20. The fall
of James II. again called up intolerance in all its rancor. In
1690 Virginia decreed that no Popish recusant should be allowed
to vote, and six years later re-enacted the law, making five hun-
dred pounds of tobacco the penalty for oftending against it. Even
this, however, did not satiate tho spirit of hatred with -i^'bich the
minds of men were imbued. They had oppressed the .': Lholics;
this was not enough. They sought means to degrade and insult
them, and devised a plan which rated them socially with their ne-
gro slaves. By an act, unparalleled in legislation, Virginia in
1 705 declared Cathohos incomp>^tent as witnesses — their testimony
could not be taken in court. It may be supposed that this was
the act of a moment of frenzy : this can hardly be, for nearly half
a century later it was re-enacted, and to prevent any doubt, the
words "in any case whatever" were added. Thus, men who
signed the Declaration of Independence actually voted for the

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160

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

most pvoscriptive of laws. The year 1*750, just twenty years be-
fore the close of British rule, marks the last of the penal acts, and
it is by far the most comprehensive. By its terms the ofih was
to be tendered to Papists ; they were not to keep arms under a
penalty of three months imprisonment, the forfeiture of t' e arms,
and thrice their value. The inforner was to have as his reward
the value of the arms ; and any Virginian high-minded enough
not to inform against his Catholic neighbor, incurred the same
penalties as the latter. By the same law no Catholic was per-
mitted to own a horse worth over £5 ; and if he did, and kept it
concealed, he was liable to three months imprisonment and a fine
of thrice its value.* Thus, in colonial times, a Catholic, in the
native State of Washington, could not hold any office, nor vole,
nor keep arms, nor own a horse, nor even be a witness in any
cause, civil or criminal. Priests were subjected to the penalties
of the English law. For more than a century the Catholics thus
scattered among the Virginia plantations were deprived of reli-
gious succor, and faith died out among them, or at least disap-
peared after the first generation.f

Meanwhile the Jesuit Fathers of Maryland visited with great
zeal the parts of Virginia least remote from their pro\nnce, and
one of the most ardent in this laborious mission was Father John
Carroll, the illustrious founder of the episcopal hierarchy in the
United States. When he resided at Rock Creek in Maryland, in
17 7 4, he visited once a month the little congregation of A^uia

* See Hening's Statutes at Large, i. 268 (1641) ; ii. 48 (1661) ; iii. 172
(1699) ; id. 238, 299 (1705) ; vi. 388 (1758) ; vii. 37 (1756). All these horri-
ble enactments were abolished in October, 1776 ; id. ix. 164, Eeligious
freedom was established only in 1784 (id. xii. 84) — a large party, supported
by Washington and Patrick Henry, being in favor of an established church.
Hildreth's History of the United States, iii. 884.

+ Some doubtless emigrated, when able, to Maryland or other parts, so as
to bo within reach of a priest ; and in the Life of Father Jogues we find an
Irishman from Virginia going to confesiiiou to that holy martyr, when, at
New York in 1043.

Ill;

IN THE UNITED STATES.

161

Creek, in Virginia, sixty miles from his residence. His two eldest
sisters had settled at Aquia, having married two Catholics named
Brent, who had maintained their faith amid every peril, and
drawn other Catholics around them. This was probably the first
organized parish in Virginia, and the name of Carroll, so eminent
in the history of the Church in Maryland, has thus a new title to
the veneration of the faithful.

About the same time Father George Hunter, an Englishman, left
his residence of St. Thomas Manor, to cross the Potomac, and se-
cretly in disguise celebrate the holy mysteries in some Virginian
cabin. Father James Frambach was appointea to take charge of
the Catholics around Harper's Feriy ; and one day the mission-
ary having been discovered by some Protestants, owed his life
only to the fleetness of his horse, which swam the Potomac amid
a shower of balls, which the fanatical Virginians discharged on
the fugitive Jesuit.*

Soon after, however, the Rev. John Dubois, afterwards Bishop
of New York, landed at Norfolk in July, 1791, with letters of
recommendation from Lafayette to the Randolplis, Lees, and
Beverlys, to James Monroe and Patrick Henry. Thus introduced
to the leading men of Virginia, he proceeded to Richmond, and
for want of a chapel, said Mass for the few Catholics of the place
in the capitol, which was kindly placed at his disposal.

Teaching for his support, Mr. Dubois labored here for several
years, and effected the conversion of Governor Lee. Even after
his removal to Frederick, he extended his regular missionary
visits to Martinsburg, Winchester, and indeed to all Western
Virginia.f

The Rev. Dennis Cahill also about this time labored in the

* U. S. Catholic Magazine, iii. 171.

+ Catholic Expositor, 1843, p. 91. Diaeourae on the Kt. Rev. John Du-
bois, D. D., by the Eev. John McCaffrey. Letter to the Leader by a " Moun-
taineer of 1823."

Hi,,'!

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162

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Eoigliborliood of Miutinsburg, and was the instrument of receiving
into the Church a family who were brought to a knowledge of
the true faith in a mode so extraordinary that we cannot avoid
some account of it.

About 1779 a Lutheran of German origin, Livingston by name,
removed witli his family to a place in Jefferson county, about fif-
teen miles from Middleway, still called Wizard's CHp. Soon after
this his house was haunted by a strange visitant, that burnt his
barns, killed his cattle, broke his furniture, and cut his clothing all
to pieces in a most curious and remarkable manner. He naturally
sought means to rid himself of this annoyance, and not a few vol-
unteered to deliver the house. The first who came, however,
were soon put to flight by the conduct of a stone, which danced
out from the hearth and whirled around for some time, to their
great dismay. A book of common-prayer, used by another party
in conjuring it, was unceremoniously thrust into a place of con-
tempt. Others tried with as little success ; but at last Livingston
had a dream, in which he saw a Catholic church, and heard a
voice telling him that the priest was the man who would reJeve
him. His wife then persuaded him to send for the Rev. Mr.
Cahill, who seemed rather unwilling to go, but at last yielded,
and spiinkled the house with holy water, upon which the noise
and annoyance ceased.

Livingston soon after visited a Catholic church at Shepherds-
town, and recognizing in the officiating priest the person whom
he saw in his dream, believed and resolved to become a Catholic.
The Rev. Mr. Cahill subsequently said Mass at his house, but
Mr. Livingston and his family were instructed by a voice which
explained at length the sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eu-
charist, prayed with them, and frequently exhorted them to
prayer and penitential works. These facts were notorious, and
the family were known to be almost ignorant of English and
without Catholic books. The Rev. Mr. Cahill, Prince Gallitziu,

■*4#i!'-

IN THE UNITED STATES.

163

and his tutor, tlie Rev. Mr. Brozius, Father Pclleutz, and Bishop
Carroll all investigated these occurrences, which were renewed
during seventeen years, accompanied even hy apparitions, and all
considered them really supernatural, generally ascribing them to
a suftering soul in purgatory.

So completely did Mr. Livingston disregard the loss of hia
temporal goods in consideration of the precious boon of faith
which had been bestowed upon him, that like the merchant who,
seeking good pearls and finding one precious one, sold all he
possessed to acquire it, he would have given all to obtain it ; and
to show his gratitude to Ahnighty God, gave a lot of ground for
the benefit of the Church.

The conversions did not sease with his own family ; many of
the neighbors were also brought to a knowledge of the true faith,
and in one winter no less than fourteen were converted. The
Catholics were by the same means maintained in a more strict
observance of the duties which religion enjoins, and warned of
the least neglect.

Strange as these incidents may seem to many, no facts are
better substantiated, and a full account was drawn up by the
Rev. Demetrius A. Gallitzin, who in 1797 went from Conewago
to Livingston's, and spent three months in examining into the
circumstances. " My view in coming to Virginia," says he, " and
remaining there three months, was to investigate those extraordi-
nary facts of which J had heard so much, and which I could not
prevail upon myself to believe ; but I was soon converted to a
full behef of them. No lawyer in a court of justice ever did
examine or cross-examine witnesses more strictly than I did all
the witnesses I could procure. I spent several days in penning
down the whole account."* The very name of Cliptown, pre-

* See Letters of Prince Gallitzin iu the St. Louis Leader for Dec. 1, 1855.
See also his work on the Holy Scriptures, p. 151.

■v.

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I V 1

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164:

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

served to tliis day, is a proof of the facts which gave rise to the

name

Bishop Carroll was always alive to the wants of this early field
of his labors, and as religion began to be free in Virginia, em-
ployed one or two priests exclusively on the mission in that State ;
but they often met severe trials, and in 1816 Rev. James Lucas, a
French ecclesiastic, was sent to Norfolk to restore the j)eace of
the Church, troubled by the revolt of the trustees, who, having
the church property in their hands, had called in a bad priest to
officiate. Mr. Lucas hired a room, which he transformed into a
chapel. By his prudent firmness he soon drew around him the
Catholics, who left the interdicted church ; and the trustees, left
to themselves, at last returned to the path of duty.f

When the Sovereign Ir'ontifl' erected the See of Charleston, in
1820, for South Carolina, he at the same time founded that of
Richmond for Virginia, and the Rt. Rev. Patrick Kelly was ap-
pointed, as we have stated in a previous chapter ; but the prelate
never went to Richmond, where he would not have found means
of subsistence, so few and so poor were the Catholics then.
Bishop Kelly remained at Norfolk, and had to open a school to
support himself. A year after, he Avas transferred to the See of
W^aterford, in Ireland, and the administration of the diocese of
Richmond was confided to the Archbishop of Biiitimore. In
1829, Archbishop Whitfield visited Richmond and Norfolk, and

* Most of the above detaila are derived from a narrative preserved in the
family of a Catholic neighbor of Livingston, and witnosaea to the whole
tr;;uSMOtion.

t I'he Bev. James Lncas was born at Rennes, in 1788, and had aa his pro-
fcL jor in theology, Simon Briitt^, afterwards Bishop of Vincennes. Ordained
in 1812, ho came to the United States in 1815, and was almost immediately
sent to Norfolk. Mr. Lucas left that place on the arrival of Bishop Kelly,
and after he'iug pastor of St. Peter's, Washington, entered the Society of
Jesus. Ho died at Froderick, on the litli of I'eb'-uary, 1847, leaving the
reputation of a priest full of zeal and piety, an untiring missionary, an elo-
quent preacher, and a learned theologian. Catholic Almanac, 1848, p. 262.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

166

13 pro-
ained
lately
Kelly,
ety of
\g the
n elo-
262.

1 ^

in a letter, dated January 28, 1830,^'' gnros an account of his
journey through Virginia. Only four priests then resided in that
State, which was unable to support more. At Richmond, amid
the wealth and luxury of the city, the Catholics had only an
humble wooden chapel. At Norfolk, where the church was more
decent, the prelate confirmed one hundred and thirty-eight per-
sons, and learned that the faithful numbered over six hundred.
In his letter of September 16th, 1832, Archbishop Whitfield an-
nounces that he had sent to Virginia a zealous missionary.
" This priest has traversed the State ; he has everywhere found
the Protestants ready to hear him; they offered him their
churches, town-balls, and other public buildings, inviting him to
preach there, and this is not surprising. The mass of the people,
divided into almost countless sects, now knows not what to be-
lieve ; and by dint of wishing to judge for themselves, end by no
longer having any idea what to believe of the contradictory doc-
trines taught them ; the rich become atheists, deists, philosophei's.
How unhappy it is to be unable to send missionanes into this
State, which is as large as England ! There is no doubt that if
we had laborers and means, prodigies would be eflfected in that
vast and uncultivated field."f

This progress, though slow, was real; and in 1838 Archbishop
Eccleston was able to announce that there were nine thousand
Catholics in the State, and that they possessed eight churches.
It was stjll a very feeble religi* us establishment ; but no more is
needed in America to begin a diocese, and in consequence of the
bulls of the Holy Father, the Rt. Rev. Richard Vincent Whelan,
born at Baltimore on the 28th of January, 1809, was c->nsecrated
in his native city Bishop of Richmond on the 21st of March, 1841.
The new prelate made gieat sacrifices to open a diocesan semi-
nary ; and the commencement seemed to justify his hopes. On

* Annalcs dc la Propagation de la Foi, iv. 245.

+ Idem, V. 721.

!!""

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166

THE CATHOLIC CUUKCH

the 1st of January, 184n, he conferred minor orders at Richmond,
and the following year six pious young men received the tonsuro
at his hands. IJut in spite of the services rendered to the diocese
by this seminary, the expense was too groat for the prelate s feebio
resources, and in 1846 Bishop Whe'nn resolved to close It, and
send the young leviteo, destined to the priesthood, 'o Ireland or
Baltimoi'<\ Before his consecration the Bishop of Richmond had
installed three Sisters of Chanty, from. Emmitsburg, iu his pansh
of Martin.sb'i rg. He soon confi led to them an orphan as\luii'( ai.
Richmond and a school ot Norfolk; this last city especial iy eon-
soled him, and he sev ■ il times visited it to confirm new converts
to the faith. Richraoncl did rot, however, oflfer the same re-
sources, and in iB-10 Bishoj. Whelau resolved to fix his residence
at Wheeling, wiiero t)ie O-vtholic population was becoming more
important. The great distance of the two cities from each other
made it, however, desirable that Richmond should not be de-
prived of the presence of r. bishop. The Fathers of the seventh
C iincii of Baltimoie accordingly, in 1849, asked that Virginia
should be divided into two dioceses. The lioly See consented,
and by ;t bull of July 23, 1850, transferred Bishop Whelan to the
See of \\ Ueehngj as he had wished, and called the Rev. John
McGill to the See of Richmond, which, now comprised all the
eastern portion of the State. This prelate is a native of Phila-
delphia, and acquired a reputation for science and eloquence at
Louisville, v^here he was long pastor, and where be published
several controversial and theological works. At the present time
(1855) the diocese of Richmond contains eleven churches, ten
ecclesiastics, and a population of about nine thousand Catholics.
Wheel) n- was so called after a Catholio prie.ft of the name of
Whelan, who, at the beginning of the century, ofliciated in Wes
ern Pennsylvania and Virginia, fiud who having by baptism re
lieved a child whom all regari'> as possessed, the father i' '•
child gave the name of Whe' o the town. Catholic.'; hiU

• i

}«

i i

•J
! I

IN THE UNITED STATES.

107

climop ],
1 tonsDto
? diocef-o
as fecbio
e 'd, and
liltind or
'ond had
is palish
iyima ai.
aiiy con-
converts
same ro-
'esidence
iifj m(»re
ich other
t be d(i-
seventh
Virginia
>nsented,
m to the
V. John
all tiie
f Phila-
ence at
iblished
nt time
jhes, ten
tholics.
ame of
We3
ism rc-

■ hai

not, however, advanced very rapidly in this section of the country ;
and at the present time the diocese of Wheeling contains twelve
churches, ten priests, and seven thousand Catholics. In 1848,
eight Sisters of the Visitation from Maryland opened a convent
and boarding-school at Wheeling, and in 1853 a hospital was
founded there by the Sisters of St. Joseph from St. Louis, whose
institute was originally founded at Puy, in 1650.

The faith, it is evident, is still weak in Virginia, a State in
which, according to the census of 1850, there was a population
of one million four hundred and twenty-one thousand inhabitants,
five hundred and twenty-seven thousand of whom are colored.
This is because the Irish emigration turns away from a country
where slavery renders free labor of no advantage to the mechanic
or laborer ; while we see in the sequel of our sketch how Catho-
licity develops itself in the North and West. Virginia will be
still for a considerable time one of the least favored States in the
Union in Catholic institutions ; but, thanks to the wonders of in-
dustry and of modern science, the few priests of Richmond and
Wheeling suffice to impart religious succor to the faithful scat-
tered over the vast surface of the State. Little reflection is given,
as far as we know, to the services which the electric telegraph
and railroads render to religion ; and yet these services are quite
real in all the extent of America. If a sick man be in danger of
deatk, his relatives hasten to t^ond a dispatch to the nearest priest,
who is often seventy-five or one hundred miles from them. He
in turn takes the first train to go to the dying who calls for the
consolation of the faith, and the poor can be counted by thou-
sands who would l^e otherwise deprived of the last sacraments,
but for the precis c. resouiocs of the magnetic telegraph. Thus
the gieatest \jniuses are unwiiungly the instruments of Provi-
dence, and ; rofessor Morse hardly supposea, when meditating on
the utility of his telegraph, that in a host of circumstances he
pla .,id confession within the reach of the dying

tr,

ts ■

¥'' ^ ;

T'i !

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16S

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

But we cannot close this brief notice of Cutliolicity in the dio-
cese of Richmond without alhiding to the labors and services of
some of the more eminent clergymen who have toiled in extend-
ing Catholicity in the Old Dominion, and whom we have not yet
had occasion to name. From 1829 to 1836, though the cholera
twice ravaged his extended parish and thrice prostrated him, the
Rev. .John B. Gildea labored with the most commendable zeal and
beneficial results in Martinsburg, Harper's Ferry, and other places,
completing two churches and erecting one other. Zealous, espe-
cially for the diffusion of a knowledge of our doctrines, he did all
in his power to disseminate short popular explanations, and subse-
quently was one of the founders of the Catholic Tract Society.

But the most illustnous of the Virginian clergy was the Rev.
Francis Devlin, a martyr of charity during the yellow fever which
made Norfolk and Portsmouth a desert in 1855. Mr. Devlin had
just been assailed by a slanderer in the public papers, and Catho-
licity, in the persons of the Sisters of Charity, had been assailed
by a romantic girl and her crafty advisers. An example was
needed of what Caiaolicity was in the hour of trial. Mr. Devlin
refuted the slanders of the enemies of truth by his faithful dis-
charge of the duties of a good shepherd, who, when the hireling
tiieth because he is a hireling, remains and lays down his life for
his flock. From the first moment of the appearance of the epi-
demic, he was unwearied in his exertions, bearing alike temporal
and spiritual succor to the poor. By his appeals he stimulated
the charity of Catholics in other parts, and drew several Jesuit
Fathers from Georgetown to aid him. Night and day he was
beside the sick, especially the poorest and most deserted. When
no other was there to relieve them, he performed all the duties of
a nurse, arranging their beds, bringing from his dwelling soups
and drinks which he had made. At length he was himself
stricken down, but though timely aid broke the fever, he could
not bear to lie on bis couch whi^o others were dying ; before he

IN THE UNITED STATES.

169

the dio-
vices of
extend-
not yet
cholera
bim, the
zeal and
r places,
us, espe-
e did all
id subse-
:;iety.
;he Rev.
er which
jvlin had
d Catho-
assailed
iple was
Devlin
hful dis-
lireling
life for
le epi-
einporal
raulated
Jesuit
he was
When
uties of
soups
himself
e could
)fore be

had recovered he was again by the bedside of the sick, and laid
down his life on the 9th of October, in the fortieth year of his age.
In the same month the rights of the confessional were brought
before tho tribunals of Virginia, as they had nearly fifty years
previous'/ before those of New York, and with a like result. A
man nwmed John Croniu, impelled by jealousy, gave his wife a
deadb wound. The Very Kev. John Teeling, a Catholic clergy-
I man i«f Richmond, who attended her on her death-bed, was called

I j" as a «fitne8s on the trial before the Superior Court, and asked the

; I sub/jeance of her sacramental confession to him. This he modestly

ibut firmly declined. " Any statement, made in her sacramental
confession, whether inculpatory or exculpatory of the prisoner, I
•; I ;im not at liberty to reveal." The question was again and again

> put in various forms, but the Rev. Mr. Teeling refused as before,

and at last, in a short address, explained to the Court his motives
and the obligation of secrecy which the Church i-^iposes on con-
fessors. His statement was listened to with the utmost attention,
and made an evident impression on all present. T he question then
came up whether a proper foundation had been laia for the intro-
duction of the woman's declaration in confession as a dying decla-
ration. Judge John A. Meredith, who presided, decided in the
negative ; but as the question had been raised, gave his opinion on
the admissibility of the confession, and decided against it. " I
regard," says the Judge, " any infringement upon the tenets of any
denomination as a violation of the fundamental law, which guaran-
tees perfect freedom to all classes in the exercise of their religion.
To encroach upon the confessional, which is well understood to
be regarded as a fundamental tenet in the Catholic Church,
would be to ignore the Bill of Rights, so far as it is applicable to
that Church. In vie^" of these circum mces, as well as of other
considerations coc ' .1 with the subject, I feel no hesitmion in
ruling that a priest (. joys <, privilege of exemption from revealing
vviiai is communicated to \\\m in the confessional."

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170

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

!'■ iffl

CHAPTER XII

DIOCESE OF BALTIMOUE (1840-1S46).

Decrees as to eoclc : Jttcsl property— Fifth Council of Baltimore — Decrees afcalnst di-
vorce and mixed • 'riuges — Subdivision of the dioceses — Sixth Council of Baltimore
—Decree as to ih'; iinmaciilato Conception- Labora uf the Society of Jesus ia the
United Statos.

One of the most important decrees of the fourth Council of
Baltimore bore upon church property, and laid down rules for its
preservation. The question of the possession and administration
of the churches is ono of unequalled gravity. It has subjected
religion in the United States, since the emancipation of the Cath-
olics, to inni'merable trials ; it has produced periodical schisms —
fortunately, however, only local and partial, but not pacified with-
out great scandal; it has given the bigoted majorities in the
State governments a pretext for interfering in the affairs of the
Church, and is an imminent cause of serious forebodings for the
future.

From the fundamental principle of absolute liberty of worship
and the separation of Church and State, it would seem that the
Catholic religion, should be invested with the right of administer-
ing and possessing property according to the prescriptions of the
sacred canons. Protestant tolerance has m ver, .lowever, gone so
far as to grant the Church this essenti' . anc'ise; and at all
times civil laws have fettered the free deveiopraeri: of the faith or
multiplied the seeds of revolt in the bosoin of Catholic bodies.
The prof ^ss of religion, watched with a jealous eye, has made
them take back with one hand what they proffered with the
other ; and the pretendad equality which they professed to estab-

I against dl-
r UaltimoTc
Fesus la the

ouncil of

les for its

nistration

subjected

the Cath-

chisms —

ed with-

s in the

Irs of the

s for the

worship
[that the
Iminister-
Is of the
gone so
Id at all
faith or
bodies.
ks made
^ith the
estab-

IN THE UKITED STATES.

171

Hsli in the oyo of the law between Catholicity and other religious
denominations is itself a danger, because it tends to Protestantize
the Church by putting it into the congn^gationaiist IuukIs of thu
laity.

For libiM'ty of worship to be in all points a reality, the Church
must be considered as a civil person for the possession of the
property which it owes.to the cliarity of the faithful and of the
necessary edifices for the accoinplishmcnt of its ceremonies. It
would bo necessary that the security of its title should not be in-
A'alidated or compromised by the death of an individual, or by an
error of form in a deed or will. This result would be obtained if
the bishop, the supreme authority in the diocese, were incorpo-
I'ated as bishop with the right of transmitting to his successors
the goods of the Church ; or else, if the body of the clergy, pre-
si'led over by the bishop, formed this civil person ; or, lastly, if
e:> ' pastor became ex-offi,cio invested with the nominal property
of the church which he serves — a property which belongs in
reahty to the faithful for whoso religious wants it has been built.
For seventy y irs the bishops of the United States have sought,
with a perseverance undaunted by defeat, to obtain these guaran-
tees from the justice of each State ; for these questions fall within
the cognizance of the several State Legislatures. They hnve,
however, generally failed, and Catholics are invariably sent bad'
to the common law, and accused of the high crime of not being
satisfied with what is good enoujjh for Protestants.

Now this common law, that all property set apart for worship
be possessed and administered by a Bt)ard of Trustees, appointed
by a general election of the lay members of the creed, and re-
newed by the same process by general election — this system,
essentially Congregationalist, may suit the thousand sects of Pro-
testantism, where the people, the grand depositaries of dogma and
doctrine, should also hold the deposit of the church buildings ;
but it is repugnant to the very organization of Catholicity, where

[If

172

TIIK CATHOLIC OliritCII

tho liead governs llui inombcrM iiiHU'iul of Ix-iiiggovertn'il by thorn.
Yut, in tho HiHt forty yours of this century, th(! American hio-
rarehy (juite fixxjUently acee]»te(l tlijn fulso position, and many
ehurclies were incorporated under the name of a Board of Tnis-
tees. lUit the hiy administration has, for the most part, prcxhiced
oidy trouble and scandal. The trustees, instead of remaining in
their K'gal sphere, invaded the spiritual domain ; they wished to
assume a deliberative voice in the election of tho piustor, and even
of the bishop ; they have, moreover, in many cases, compromised
the honor and sanctity of religion by personal speculations, Ity
unreasonable debts and shameful baidtruptcies. After desperate
struggles and prolonged schisms — after end)arrassments whiiih
Imve shortened by grief tho livea of several bishops — after tho ox-
communication of several 13oard« of Trustees and the interdiction
of their churches, the bishops were at last compelled to remove
religion in future from the perils of this system, and the only
means of escaping it has been to take in their own name the title
of the religious property of the diocese. As to churches or con-
vents belonging to European or American religious orders, tho
title remains in the local Superior, and is transferred by him to
his successor in authority.

This system, imposed upon the bishops by the force of circum-
stances, is not exempt from danger. Without assuming tho
doubtless impossible case of a prelate appropriating to his own
use property devoted to the exercise of worship, it may happen
that a bishop should die without making a will, or what is tanta-
mount, a \ did will, or a legal heir lay claim to property, the
special nature of which is nowise guaranteed by law. To remedy
these grave difficulties and this precarious situation, the Sacred
Congregation of the Propaganda, interpreting and developing the
eighth decree of the fourth Council of Baltimore, issued the de-
cree of December 16th, 1840, on the preservation of chui'ch
property.

IN TIIK UNITED STATES.

173

It i» tliero laid down that tlio duty of ovory arolihiMliop and
bi«ln)p rcquiroa him to picparo a will in tlio U^gal form rcijuiit'cl
iu the State in wliicii they resich', and thorehy to luMpicath all
the property of the chnreh to one of the hi.siiops of tlus provinci!,
naming a second episcopal legatee in case of the death or default
of the first. These wills should ho executed iu duplicate, one of
which is to be kept in the archives of tlio diocese, tho other sisnt
to tho archbishop. It is tho duty of the metropolitan to see that
these instruments are drawn up in the least litigious terms, in-
vested witii all legal formalities; and ho shall also receive all tho
■wills made by the superiors of religious comnmnities, advising tho
testator of such corrections as for greater security it may seem to
him proper to suggest in these important instruments. On tho
death of a bishop tho devisee put in possession shall send tho
vicar-gcneral of the deceased a power of attorney to administer ;
and on the canonical election of a new bishop, the latter shall re-
ceive a transfer in his own name of all the ecclesiastical property
possessed by his predecessor. The decree required also, that if,
within three months, each bishop did not deposit his will in tho
liands of his metropolitan, it should bo referred to the Holy Con-
gregation of the Propaganda. " But in the fifth Council of Balti-
more the American prelates asked tho Holy See to mitigate the
rigor of this clause, and it was deemed less indispensable, as every
bishop was better aware of the wisdom of the regulation.*

Establishments of education, colleges, universities, and board-
ing-schools for young ladies are, in the United States, under a
legislation quite different from that of churches, and are thus
saved from the danger's which threaten the latter. The States
generally, without much difficulty, incorporate these liouses, and
the property is then possessed by the faculty, composed of the
president and principal officers of the college or institution, and

* Concilia Provincialia Baltimori liabita, pp. 172, 198, 210.

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174

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

sometimes of friends, who are from time to time elected as tnis-
tees. Many colleges, directed by the Jesuits and other orders or
societies, are thus held. The Legislatm'e of Massachusetts has,
however, pertinaciously refused to incorporate the Jesuit college
of the Holy Cross, at Worcester, although it fulfils every condi-
tion required ; and that State, the cradle of Puritanism in
America, the actual centre of infidelity and arianism, is distin-
guished now, as in 1620, by fanaticism and intolerance.

The prudence of the bishops and of the Holy See having re-
moved or banished the fatal ferment which Protestantism so
adroitly endeavored to infuse into the discipline of the Church,
the enemies of religion sought new modes to attain their end ;
Catholics are incessantly stimulated by the countless voice of the
press, the pulpit, and the platform, to revolt against their pastors.
The amount of property held by the bishops is estimated ; and
on one side designing men endeavor to alarm Protestants at the
immense power which monojjolizing prelates — mastere of the soil
and slaves of Rome — acquire, so that, in their eyes, it will be the
Pope who will control vast domains in free America ! On tlie
other hand, they pretend to commiserate the hard lot of Catho-
lics, who submit to a thousand piivations in order to build
ohurches, and are then subject to see the houses of their worship
enriching the heirs of their bishops. These perfidious insinua-
tions, repeated usgtie ad nauseam, exercise little influence on the
majority of the faithful. Within the last few years most Boards
of Trustees have voluntarily dissolved and asked to transfer their
title of the churches to the bishops; those who still act have, in
general, lost the congregationalist spirit which formei'ly animated
ti.^m, and keep pretty exactly within their legitimate sphere ot
d . „/ and rights. Except at St, Louis Church, in Buflalo, no schism,
w>i believe, has afflicted the Church in 1855. The Catholics,
better instructed than formerly, have lost much of their propen-
sity to revolt, and, advancing in piety, have gained confidence in

il :

t, '

IN" THE UNITED STATES.

175

lated
re ot

lisin,
olics.

tliL'ir pastors and veneration for tlieir cliaracter. But the Pro-
testant portion of the people have raised the cry of alarm ; they
have beheld themselves inundated by a torrent of Romanism^
handed over to the Pope, the Inquisition, the Jesuits ; and the
rallying cry of American Free Masonry, known as Know-Nothing-
ism, is the restoration of Trusteeisin as a means of destroying
Catholicity. The Legislature of New York has already (1855)
passed a law declaring that no devise, bequest, or donation for re-
ligious purposes shall be valid unless made to a Board of Trus-
tees, and authorizing the State authorities to seize the property
if the congregation will not elect trustees. The Pennsylvania
Legislature also introduced a law menacinfj Catholic church
property, and these preliminary steps are only the mutterings of
the tempest which threatens the Church.

The fifth Council of Baltimore met on the lith of May, 1843.
Sixteen bishops took pp.rt in the deliberations, and one of the
most important decrees is that which pronounces the penalty of
excommunication ipso facto against those who, after obtaining a
civil divorce, pretend to contract a second marriage. So tolerant
is public opinion in the United States of such unions, that it is
indispensable to warn Catholics by the severest threats. K the
Church has for eighteen centuries done so much to sanctify mar-
riage and destroy polygamy. Protestantism has for three hundred
years labored in the opposite direction to loosen the conjugal tie ;
and where its errors predominate it has, unfortunately, succeeded
but too well. In the very outset of the pretended reformation,
Luther authorized the Landgrave of Hesse to take two wives ;
and bigamy under another name exists in iVmerica, where many
marry again immediately after getting a divorce. These legal
dissolutions of marriage are becoming more and more frequent;
and from statistical calculations, based on newspapers and pe-
riodicals, we ascei'tain approximately that in the L^nited States,
out of a population of twenty-four millions, ten thousand marriages

3 t

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176

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

are annually set aside, so that every year twenty thousand indi-
viduals obtain the right of living in legal adultery. This is not
all. While divorce is thus authorized by the most rigid sects,
other sects have no scruple in going further. The Perfectionists
preach a community of wives, and put it in practice in their great
phalanstery at Oneida. The Skaneateles adopt a medium be-
tween the Perfectionists and the Mormons, and keep only one wife
as long as it suits them not to change. Finally, the Mormons
openly recommend polygamy, and their great prophet, Brigham
Young, has no less than fifty wives. All these resort to the Bible
to justify their practices, and the principle of private jud/:^ment
deprives our more respectable separated brethren of any atvi 'lority
to combat depravity thus hypocritically assuming the cloak of
religion to impose on the vulgar.

It is incontestable that many of the patriarchs were not monog-
amists ; and when men reject the tradition and authority of the
Church, they have no arms to repel the most criminal ideas and
shameful acts. Yet Protestantism has still some steps lower to
go before reaching the bottom of the abyss of license which pri-
vate interpretation has dug beneath their feet. They began by
condemning Christian cehbacy; they then procl.'med divorce;
they have now got to polygamy. To-morrow we may see the
Mormons resorting to mutilation to secure guards to their harems.
And, in fact, as the rich and privileged class monopolize for them-
selves the women of Utah, they must adopt oriental usages to
protect the virtue of their sultanas. Some good men are alarmed
lest the Eastern question should defer the complete decomposition
of Islamism, and believe that there is more truth in the heretic
most removed from Catholic truth than in the best Mussulman.
We must avow that we cannot see how much Christianity is left
in the millions of Amencans who belong to no church, who are not
even baptized, and who are more completely severed from us than
the Mohanunedans, for the latter, by the sign of circumcision, are

rer to
h pri-

IN IHE UNITED STATES.

177

connected with the practices of the IsraeUtes, our ancestors in the
faith. If polygamy is decreasing at Constantinople, it is develop-
ing itself fearfully on the banks of the Great Salt Lake, and the
custom of divorce, in all the Stai'cs, is a sad step to more serious
infractions of God's laws. If slavery is maintained in Turkey, it
is not less rooted in the institutions of the Mississippi Valley. If
in the East, Mahomet is honored as a prophet, Joe Smith, Miller,
Brigham Young, are venerated in the United States as envoys of
God. Deplorable moral degradation, which forms a sad contrast
with the progress of material civilization and the wonders of in-
dustry in the best organized republic in tlie world !

The Catholics in the United States, faithful to the laws of the
Church, seldom avail themselves of the facility aftbrded for the
satisfaction of their passions by American legislation. And in
such cases they cease to be Catholics ; but by marriage with Pro-
testants, the Cathohc may be placed in a state of divorce, and
this is not one of the least dangers of these ill-assortod unions.
The Council of Baltimore, accordingly, have not failed to disap-
prove decidedly mixed marriages, and to dissuade Catholics from
them, while decrees endeavor to protect the faith of the Catholic
and that of all the future children. Unfortunately the wise pre-
scriptions of the bishops, confirmed by the Holy See, are not
understood as thev deserve to be ;* and we must sav that mixed
marriages are still frequent in the United States, where, as else-
where, they aftect the purity of the faith. Their iiitV.llible result
is first to call in doubt the Catholic dogma : " Out of the Church
no salvation." A mother and children cannot resign themselves
to the belief that their father will not be saved, and they easily
oome to imagine that all religions are good. Moreover, from in-

* The sixteenth statute of tlie Diocesau Synod of 1791, the firt^t decree of
the fourth Provincial council of Baltimore, end tholetter of the Congregation
of the Propaganda, of July 8, 1847, lay down very severe rules on the subject
of mixed maniiiges.

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THE CATUoLio ciiuncH

cessaiit controversy, the Catholic liusbiuid or wifo, often unin-
btrnctr'd, makes prodigious concessions, imagining all the while
that tliey reniain true to the faith. Mixed marriages lead natu-
rally to the mingling of Catholics and Protestants in society. In
a new country, vvhei'c the arts are but little dcAcloped, where
commerce augments fortunes, but not ideas, conversati ju has not
the field it finds elsewhere ; and in the commonplace of the parlor,
religious conversation occupies no inconsiderable space. In these
tilts of Lei'esy, full of arguments and prejudices against faltering
truth, the victory is often obtained by error ; and we have heard
a liidy, thinking herself a good Catholic, and approachmg the
Sacraments, avow to her Protestant antagonists that she believed
neither in ihe real presence nor in eternal punishment. Long
observation in the United States has convinced us of the danger
of mixed marriages, even if we had not the decrees of the Church
to convince us on the point. We have seldom seen tliese mar-
riages followed by the conversion of the Protestant party ; more
frequently do they entail the perversion of the Catholic. The
]>romise given as to the religion of the children unborn is inces-
santly infringed ; and if we admire the wisdom of the Chui'ch in
its repugnance for mixed marriages, we regret that the hardness
of the times docs not permit her to j)rohibit them completely.

The happy progress of religion, ascertained by the Fathers of
the lifth Council, induced them to ask a new subdivision of dio-
ceses ; and in consequence, the bishops I'enewed the proposition
for the erection of an episcopal See at Pittsl)urg for Westein
Pennsylvania, ;it the same time that they solicited the foundation
of other Sees —at Chicago for the State of Illinois, at Milwaukic
for the State of Wisconsin, at Little Rock for the State of Arkan-
sas, and at H.'irtford for Connecticut and Rhode Island.

The Holy See acceded to the proposition, and by letters of
September 30th, 1843, tiie Congregation of the Piopaganda
transmitted the Pontitical briefs appointing the lit. Rev. Andrew

IN THE UNITED STATES.

179

ll'S of
dio-
iition
Istern
iitiuii
iiikic
^kan-

of
linda
lli<nv

Byrne to the bishopric of Little Rock ; the Rt. Rev. William
Quarter to the See of Chicago ; the Rt. Rev. William Tyler to
the See of Hartford ; aud the Rt. Rev. John M. Henni to the
bishopric of Mihvaukie, At the same time, the Rt. Rev. Ignatius
Reynolds was caWeA to the See of Charleston, then vacant by the
death of Bishop England. And Rome granted coadjutors to the
Bishop of New York, in the person of the Rt. Rev. John
McCloskey, and to the Bishop of Boston, in the person of ihe Rt.
Rev. Jolin B. Fitzpatrick. The nomination of the Rt. Rev. Mi-
chiiol O'Connor to the See of Pittsburg took place on Mie 7th of
August, 1843, and that prelate, being then at Rome, was conse-
crated in the eternal city on the 15th of August in the same
year.*

The sixth Council of Baltimore assembled on the ] 0th of May,
184G. Twenty-three bishops took piirt in its deliberations, and
the first decree was to choose the "Blessed Virgin conceived
without sin" as the Patroness of the United States. The Fathers
of the Council thus honored the Immaculate Conception with an
ardent and unanimous voice. " Ardetitibus votis 2)io,usu consen-
suque unanindP And this solemn declaration might even then
convince the holy Fathers of th^ aspirations of the Church for the
dogmatic definition of the glorious privilege of the Mother of
God. The devotion of the faithful, moreover, for the Immaculate
Conception is not a thing of to-day in North America. It goes

* Concilia Baltiniorieiisia, 227.

Michael O'Connor, born at Cork, in Ircland,on the 27th of September, 1810;
consecrated Bislnp ot" Pittsburg, at liome, Aug. 15, 1843.

Andrew Byrne, born at Cavan, Ireland, December 5, 1802; consecrated
BiHhop of Little Rock, at New York, JIarch 10, 1844.

William Quarter, born in King's county, Ireland, January 31, 1806; con-
secrated (with the last) Bishop of Chicago ; died at Chicago April 10, 1848.

William Tyler, born at Derby, Vermont, June .5, 1806; consecrated Bisliop
of Hartford, at Baltimore, March 17, 1844; died at Providence, June 18,
1849.

John M. Henni, born at Obersaxony, Switzerland, and consecrated Biehoii
of Mihvaukie at Cincinnati, March 19, 1844.

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180

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

back to the earliest days of its discovery ; and tlie sliip which
bore Columbus to the New World was the St. Mary of the Con-
ception ; the second island which he discovered was called " La
Concepcion." In the North, Champlain, the founder of Quebec,
in 1615 dedicated under that title the little chapel which he
built in his rising city. In 1635, the Jesuits dedicated to the
Immaculate Conception their venturous Huron mission, and in
the following year consecrated the country and its people in a
special innnner to " Mary conceived without sin," as Father Le
Jenne rciates In 1658 Monseigneur de Laval, Vicar-apostolic
of N'.vv France, adopted as his anns the representation of the
BlfSb^d Vii'jcrin Immac Jate, and of St. Louis, king of France ; and
soon after j- dicated hiS cathedral at Quebec to the Blessed Virgin
Mary, under the title of the Immaculate Conception. Some years
later, Garnier founded in Western New York his mission of the
same revered name ; but in 1672 the great river Mississippi was
baptized with the name of the Conception, by the holy Jesuit
James Marquette, the first European who discovered its course ; and
this missionary, whose life .vas one continued devotion, tells us
in his narrative that he " put this voyage under the protection of
the 'Blessed Virgin Immaculate,' promising her, that if she did
lis the grace to discover the great river, I would give it the name
of the Conception ; and that I would also give that name to the
first mission which I should establish among these new nations,
as I have actually done among the Illinois."* This was the
church of Kaskaskia ; and not only the first church of that city,
but the first church at Three Rivers in Canada, as well as the
first at Mobile, one hundred and three years ago, were all dedi-
cated to the Immaculate Conception.

The prelates and clergy of the United States have a tender
devotion to the Blessed Virgin in her most admirable preroga-

* Shed'tj Dificovery and Exploration of the Mississippi, p. 8.

»^,-Bi.^'il(iriHBid

IN THE UNITED STATES.

181

Inder
loga-

tives, aud eudeavor to inspire the faitlif.d with the same piety by
estabUshing archcontVaternities and associations of prayers. Their
zeal and preaching are rewarded by an increase of fervor in the
ranks of the faithful ; and the Catholics of the United States will
soon doubtless leave nothing to be desired in their expansive
faith. It is easy to conceive that the misery of living amid sec-
taries of a thousand shades, all hostile to our dogmas and cere-
monies, exercises a pernicious influence on many souls, especially
those not early accustomed to it. They are inclined to re^t satis-
fied with what is of absolute necessity in religious practices ; they
are tempted to believe, that as God alone has a right to our ado-
ration, He alone has a right to our prayers ; and they fear to
scandalize their Protestant neighbors or Protestant members of
their family by reciting their beads or giving public honor to the
saints or their effigies. The small number of missionaries, and
the poverty of the sanctuaries, have contributed to perpetuate a
state of things which deprives religion of many of its beauties,
and piety of many of its delights. When the faithful were re-
duced to a Low Mass in an humble chapel on Sunday, special
graces were needed to prevent the heart from slumbering with
languor and remissness; but the incessant exhortations of the
clergy daily accelerate the progress of piety, and the glorious
Patroness of the United States is now honored with a tender ven-
eration by her children.

The sixth Council asked of the Holy See the division of the
vast diocese of New York, and the fonnation of the diocese of
Buffalo with the western counties of the State, and that of Albany
with the northern counties. At the same time, it was proposed
to detach from the See of Cincinnati the northern portion of the
State of Ohio, where the See of Cleveland was to be erected.
The Holy Congregation of the Propaganda announced, on the
3d of July, 1847, that these propositions were adopted; and it
transmitted the Pontifical briefs appointing to the See of Buftalo

l;^

182

THE CATHOLIC CllL'UCH

tlie Rt. Ta'A. John Tiiiion,''' to ihai ol" Albany, ilie Kt, Rev, Joliu
McCloskey, Coadjutor of New York; aud to tlu'.t of Cleveland,
the Rt. Rev. Amadeus Rappo.f

While the bishops were assembled in Council, they had the
consolation of seeing two Catholic chaph'.ii ; appointed by the
government of the United States to join the army then invading
Mexico. The recruits of the American forces aro generally Irish,
and the first regiments assembled on the Mexican frontier were at
first greatly harassed in their religious faith. The commander
endeavored to enforce their attendance on the Protestant worship
in the camp ; some who refused were even flogged, and numerous
desertions, then and later, were the results of this deplorable in-
tolerance. This was not, however, the first time that Catholic
soldiers had been hampered in the liberty of worship, under pre-
text of military discipline. In 1831, General De Walbach, at
Norfolk in Virginia, put under arrest Lieutenant John O'Brien
for refusing to enter a Protestant church at the head of his com-
])any. This aftair produced a considerable sensation at the time,
and the Lieutenant would not allow the matter to be smothered
up. He demanded a court-martial, in order to determine the
point once for all, and thus give Catholics a rule to guide them
on similar occasions. Lieutenant O'Brien is the same artillery
officer so distinguished in the Mexican War, where he rose to the
I'ank of Major. He was the author of a much-esteemed treatise
on military jurisprudence, and his work has been adopted by
(jluvernment for the use of courts- martial. As may be imagined,
the author here discusses with great care a point on which lie

* Kt. Eev. John Timon, born in the United Sta^eH, a Priest of the Mission
or Lazarist, was in 1824 a niissionury in Texas and in Ohio. On the 17th of
Oetober, 1847, he was consecrated Bisliop of Buffalo at New Yorit.

+ Rt. Rev. Amadeus IR-: "^pc, born in the diocese of Arras in France, crvnie
to this country in 1840, and was consecrated Bishop of Cleveland on the lOth
of (^•stober, 1847, at Cincinnati.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

183

Iby
Ihe

fon
of

bne

had a personal collision with a - ipeiior oflicer; and hi.s rcasoiiini'"
deserves to be kno^^".

The second article of the military code of 1800, or Articles of
War, reads as follows :

" It is earnestly recommended to all ofll •^'•" ' Vl soldiers dili-
gently to attend divine service ; and all officers wiio shall behave
indecently or irreverently at any place of divine worship, shall, if
commissioned officers, be brought befc j a general court-martial,
there to be pub'^cly and severely reprimanded '>y the president;
if non-comraiff oiied officers or soldiers, every person so offending
shall, for his first offence, forfeit one-sixth of a dollar, to be de-
ducted out of his next pay ; for the second offence, he shall not
only forfeit a like sum, but be confined for twenty-four hours ;
and for every like offence, shall suffer and pay in like manner ;
which money, so forfeited, shall be applied by the captain or
senior officer of the troop or company, to the use of the sick sol-
diers of the company or troop to which the offender belongs."*

As Lieutenant O'Brien justly remarks, the law*' prescribe some
aots and forbid others. Every prohibition of an .';. t is accompa-
nied with a penalty in case of violation. Thus, nnhuchavior in
church is forbidden by Article II., and whoever violates it incurs
the penalti(.'s laid down there. But going to church on Sunday
is only recommended, and no penalty is prescribed for the soldier
who declines or negkcts to attend divine servic \ It is, then,
merely a counsel, not an order ; any other construction of the
Article would be in op5n violation of liberty of worship, and
Congress is very careful not to infringe this. It is, then, a fla-
grant violation of the Constitution to punish a soldi i who obeys

* A Treatise on American Military Law and the Practice of Courts-Mar-
tial, by -John O'Brien, Lieutenant in the U. S. Army. Philadelphia : Lea *
Blanchard, 1846 ; p. 57. We are indebted for tliese facts to our friend, J. G.
Shea, Esq. The General Walbach hero mentioned is a strict Catholic, and
brother to the "^«ry Rev. Louis de Barth de Walbac"' v dministered the
iiooese of Phii«delphia from 1814 to 18?0.

: 11

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THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

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his conscienco and rofust's <o enter ;i church, and any soldier per-
Bccuted for such a cnuso by a fanatical superior is a victim of
revolting despotism.

The Catholic soldiers in Taylor's army were not pilent under
their wrongs. Their remonstrances readied Washington ; the
religious press took up their cause warmly, and public opinion
pronounced in their favor. President Polk asked the bishops
assembled in Council to name two chaplai .s for the troo[)s. Tho
prelates advised the government to apply to the Society of Jesus,
a provincial of which resided at Georgetown, at the very doors of
the capitol. The provincial chose for this post of honor two of
the most eminent Fathers of the Society — Father John ^IcElroy
and Father Anthony Key. Although policy had a considerable
share in this act of justice. President Polk is entitled to the grati-
tude of Catholics for affording the troops the consolations of their
religion amid the peril of war : and the fact of these disciples of
St. Ignatius being appointed .!luii>!ains in the army by Protestant
republicans, is one of those psovi-iontial and extraordinary eventa
of which the history ^f the Society of Jesus numbers so many iu
its pages. The military legislation of the United States not fore-
seeing this function, the two missionaries were breveted as cap-
tains, to give them rank in the army, and they followed tho
conquerors to tread the soil of Mexico, from whicli the religious
of their Society had been in so iniquitous a way expelled in 17G7,
by the order of Charles TIL, King of Spain. At the time when
the feelings of the Catholic soldiers were thus respected, religion
enjoyed the greatest degree of liberty and consideration which it
had ever enjoyed in the United States; every political party
sought to win the Catholics ; enthusiastic meetings were held in
all parts in honor of Pius IX., to whom various cities voted
gratulatory addresses on his election.

The Archbishop of New York was invited to preach in the
halls of Congress at Washington, and the President, with his

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IN TIIK ITNI'IKD STATES

msurrec-

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vork to

ministry, joined in the funeral cortege of the Archbishop of Bal-
timore. Thest^ marks of tolerance and sympathy were far from
the fanaticism of the last two centuries. But the revolutions of
1848 sent public opinion back in Atnericji, ar 'ukened the
filumbering religious hate. On the suppression v
tions in Germany and Italy, thousands of sociali«*
spawned on the United States. Welcomed v .u.
martyrs of liberty, these demagogues immediately :
corrupt American institutions, and succeeded but t(X) well. Their
liatred against the Church strove with infernal poitidy to arouse
Protestant fanaticism, and the results already obtained fill these
foreign refugees with confidence for the future. Tn 1840 two
Jesuits were chaplains in the American army, and Catholic pre-
lates were honored, if not courted, by all. In 1854 a Nuncio of
t'le Pope was pursued from city to city by insults and murderous
cries, and a Jesuit was treated with the most unheard-of bar-
barity.

Father Anthony Rey set out for the army in May, 1840, and
joined the corps of General Taylor, where ho immediately won
the esteem and friendship of that old warrior. lie fulfilled his
duties to the soldiers with admirable zeal, which, not satisfied
with assisting them in the hospital and on the field of battle,
induced him to learn Spanish, in order to evangelize the poor
Mexiean frontier-men, scattered over a territory incessantly rav-
aged by the hordes of savage Apaches, and destitute of all reli-
gious succor. It was especially, however, at the siege of Monterey
that Father Rey displayed the courage of a Christian hero. The
combat was deadly, and continued from street to street, from
house to house. The Jesuit accompanied the soldiers in all their
movements, raising the wounded, administering the sacraments to
ihe dying, praying for the dead, so that a Protestant account
speaks of him in these terms :

" The bulletins of your generals, and the glowing eulogiuins of

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!l .

'1111': CATHOLIC CJIUllCII

lottoi'-wrilers on particular deeds of daring, presout no examjjles
of licroism superior to this. That Jesuit priest, thus coolly,
bravely, and all unarmed, walking among bursting shells, over
the slippery streets of Monterey, and the iron storm and battle
steel that beat the stoutest, bravest soldier down, presenting no
instrument of carnal warfare, and holding aloft, instead of true
and trusty steel, that flashed the gleam of battle back, a simple
miniature cross ; and thus armed and equipped, defying danger,
presents to my mind the most sublime instance of the triumph
of the moral over the physical man, and is an exhibition of cour-
age of the highest character. It is equal to, if not beyond, any
witnessed during that terrible siege."*

After the fall of Monterey, Father Rey remained in the city to
take care of the wounded, and also gave missions in the neigh-
boring country. In one of his apostolic excursions he drew on
himself the hatred of some wretches for inveighing severely
against the depravity of a village which he had -visited. Attacked
by them, he was assassinated, together with the domestic who
attended him, stripped of his clothing, and the body of this gen-
erous hero of faith, martyr to his apostoHc zeal, was found by the
people of Ceralvo, to whom he had preached the day before.
His soldiers wept his loss, and interred him far from his native
land, far from the land of his adoption, amid the tears of the
Mexicans.f

* Memoir of Kev. Anthopy Key, S. J., by James Wynne. U. S. Catholio
Magazine, vi. 543.

+ Anthony Rey, born at Lyons, March 19th, 1807, was educated at the
Jesuit College of Fribourg, and entered the Society, November 12, 1827.
He asked to be sent to the American missions, and landed in 1 840 in the
United States, where he was successively Professor of Metaphysics at George-
town College, assistant at St. Joseph's Church, Philadelphia, then assistant
to the jirovincial at Georgetown, and pastor of Trinity Church in tliat Cicy.
This post ho left for the army in Mexico, where he was to find a grave in
the month of January, 1847, at the age of forty-one. Father Anthony Eey
■was famous for hia zeal for the strict observance of his rule— a zeal which
never relaxed.

\t the

1827.

|in the

3orge-

i'lSt^llt

City,
live in

Eey
kvhich

IN THE UNITED STATES.

187

Father Jolm McElroy, avIio sluiretl the hibors of Father Rey,
did not advance as far as his companion into the interior of
Mexico. He remained in charge of the garrisons left in the first
conquered cities, and tliere gained the confidence of the soldiers,
as in 1834 he did that of the riotous laborers on the Baltimore
and Washington Railroad, whose armed gatherings, to the num-
ber of five thousand or six thousand, had alarmed all Maryland.
The militia, called out in haste, saw no means of checking the
disorder ; but the Jesuit, by the power of religion, recalled to
their labor these hard-working but excited men.'*

We have seen the Provincial of Maryland choose two of his
ablest and most experienced Fathers for the modest task of minis-
tering to the poor soldier. This was because all souls have in
the eyes of God but one price, and the Society of Jesus has
proved since its origin that it can give its blood for the people as
for the piince, for the savage red-man as for the denizen of the
polished city. This venerable Society has greatly extenaed,
within these last years, the sphere of its apostolic labors in the
United States, and to its influence is due no inconsiderable part
of the wonderful progress of religion in that vast republic. We
spoke in a previous chapter of the foundation of Geoi'getown Col-
lege in 1188, and the reorganization of the Society in 1803.
This college, honored by a visit from Washington in 1795, has
never since failed to receive the kindly consideration of the Federal

* Father McElroy, a native of Ireland, rendered immense service to reli-
gion by tlie missions at Frederick City and all the western shore. He built
a magnificent church at Frederick, •where the Marylaiul province now has its
rovitiate; and such was his influence witii tlie people, Miat in 1829 a Pro-
tostant writer, Mr, Schaefl'er, exclaims in his journal: "Strange paradox!
Catholic France expels the Jesuits, deprives them of the education of youth,
and the Protestants of Frederick contribute, each with Ills fifty dollars, to
build the Jesuits a college there." Father McElroy has been proposed for a
n.i'.re. lie is nov (1855) pastor of St. Mary's Cluirch, Boston, but is con-
stantly travelling to the points where the confidence of the bishops or the
wants of the Society call him. (^retineau Joly, vi. S74.

.188

THE CATHOLIC CUURCII

■ ■ i

S'l

in;

Gov^ernment, and the classic solemnities of Georgetown always
attract either the President and his Cabinet or members of Con-
gress.* The astronomical labors of the Jesuit Observatory are
famous in America, and the learned professors of the college
maintain an active correspondence with the scientific men of the
country. The province of Maryland numbered in 1850, seventy
priests and sixty scholastics, employed in different institutions or

* Tradition haa preserved the details of Washington's visit to Georgetown,
and tliey faitlifnlly transmit it to the successive generations nurtured at the
college. The Father of his Country arrived on horseback, without suite and
unattended. lie led his horse to the whitewashed fence of the college in-
closure, and was first received by the late Kev. William Mathews, then a
young professor. As may be supposed, the Fathers gave him a most cordial
welcome, and took him through their whole establishment. Washington
expressed his admiration for the magnificent view which the heights of
Georgetown enjoy ; but as it was winter, and an icy breeze made the party
shiver, the General observed that they had to purchase the beauties of na-
ture in summer by tiie winter's storm — (Notice on Georgetown College in
the Catholic Instructor of Philadelphia, Feb., 1853). We cite this anecdote
to show that we know the relations which existed between the Jesuits of
Maryland and the illustrious Washington. A venerable religious, however,
reproaches us in the Ami de Religion with doubting that a personal friend-
ship existed between Washington and Archbishop Carroll. We should bo
glad to share the opinion of our opponent, but further researches enable us
to renew the assertion. There is no proof that Washington was a personal
friend of John Carroll. Archbishop Kenrick has kindly examined the cor-
respondence of the first archbishop, preserved in the archives, and ho writes :
"I find no proof that Archbishop Carroll was a personal friend of Washing-
ton." The Hon. Jared Sparks, whose labors as the biographer of the great
hero, and as the editor of his works, render him a high authority; also
writes us: "As Washington was frequently in Baltimore, and as the arch-
bishop was much respected and esteemed by all classes of socief/v there, it is
probable that they met on such occasions in the social circles ; bui: I have
seen no evidence that there was any particular intimacy between them, or
any other relations than those of a general acquaintance. All the papers left
by Washington wen; for several years in my possession, and examined with
great care, and I remember no private correspondence with Archbishop
Carroll, nor any evidence of an intimate intercourse between them."

In all Washington's correspondence there is only one letter to Archbishop
fjarroll, dated April 10, 1792, addressing him simply as " Sir," and declaring
vhe inability of Government to aid him in converting the Indians. Neither
Brent's Life, nor Campbell's, nor Archbishop Carroll's own panegyric of
Washington, alludes to any such friendship.

always
)f Con-
ory are
college
I of the
seventy
:ions or

rgetown,
■ed at the
suite and
allege in-
■s, then a
ist cordial
[ishington
leights of
the party
ics of na-
[;ollcgc in
J anecdote
Jesuits of
however,
lal frieud-
ihould be
enable us
personal
the cor-
0 writes :
Washing-
the great
arity; also
the arch-
here, it is
UK 1 have
them, or
apers left
ned with
•chbisliop

•chbishop
declaring
Neither
iCgyric of

IN THE U^'ITED STATES.

189

•missions. It had a novitiate at Frederick, aijd colleges at George-
town, Washington, and Worcester. The Jesuits of this province
directed fifty churches in the dioceses of Baltimore, Philadelphia,
Boston, Pittsburg, and Richmond, including the Indian missions
in the State of Maine. The vice-province of Missouri, the first
Fathers of which wore furnished by Maryland in 1823, numbered
in 1850, seventy-five priests, fifty-six scholastics, and eighty-three
lay brothers. It had a novitiate and scholasticate at Florissant, a
university at St. Louis, colleges at Cincinnati, Bardstown, and
Louisville, and directed twenty-eight churches in the dioceses of
St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, Milwaukie, and Chicago, and
sixteen churches or stations among the Indians in the territories.
A mission dependent on the province of France, and lying partly
in Canada, had in the State of New York, in the same year,
twenty -one priests, who directed the Diocesan Seminary, St.
John's College, and several churches in the dioceses of New York,
Albany, and Butfalo. The province of Lyons had, at the same
time, a mission in the South, employing twenty-two Fathers in
the dioceses of New Orleans and Mobile, where they directed St.
Charles' College at Grand Coteau, the School of Jesus in New
Orleans, and Spring-Hill College near Mobile. Thus, in 18^50,
sixteen dioceses shared in the pious assistance so lavishly afforded
by the members of the Society of Jesus ; and since then it has
founded new colleges at Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and
in Louisiana ?nd in California, and devotes itself to the mii^sioiis
in the dioceses of San Francisco and Monterey.*

* We add a list of the Presidents of Georgetown College :

1. Robert Plunkett, S. J., from Oct., 1791.

2. Eobert Molyneux, S. J.

8. Louis Dubourg (afterwards Bishop of New Orleans), till 1799

4. Leonard Neale, S. J. (afterwards Archbishop of Baltimore), till 1806.

5. Eobert Molyneux, S. J. «

6. William Mathews, 1808. Died in 1854.

7. Francis Neale, S. J., 1810. Died Dec. 20, 1887.

190

THE CATHOLIC CIIUKCn

r ! '!. I

n; f •!

CHAPTER XIII.

DIOCESE OF BALTIMORE — (1846-1852).

( I

Election of Plus IX.— Popularity of the Sovereign Ponflflf In the United States— Peter's
Pence — Seventh Council of Baltimore— Division of the United States Into six ecclesi-
astical provinces— Death of Archbishop Eccleston- Most Rev. Francis P. Kenrlck,
8l.\th Archbishop of Baltimore— National Council of Baltimore and new Episcopal
Sees.

The Fathers of the sixth Council of Baltimore had scarcely had
time to return to their dioceses, when news arrived of the death
of Pope Gregory XVI., followed almost immediately by the elec-
tion of His Holiness Pius IX. The Catholics of the United
States testified sincere regret for a pontiff who had done much
for religion in their country, and who had founded half the epis-
copal sees then existing. The holy organizer of so many rising
churches was deplored in the uttermost parts of the New World ;
the Catholic papers put on mourning, and in almost every diocese
a solemn funeral service was celebrated for the repose of the soul

8. John Grassi, S. J., 1812.

9. Benjamin Fenwick, S. J. 1817 (afterwards Bishop of Boston).

10. Anthony Kohlniann, S. J., 1819. Died April 10, 1888.

11. Enoch Fenwick, S. J.

12. Benjamin Fenwick, S. J., 1824.

13. Stephen L. Dubnisaon, S. J., 1825.

14. John Beschter, S. J. Died January 6, 1842.

15. Th. F. Mulledy, S. J., till 1887.

16. Wm. McSherry, S. J,, till 1839.

17. James Eyder, S. J., till 1840.

23. Th. F. Mulledy, S. J., from 1845.

19. James Eyder, S. J., from 1848.

20. Charles Stonestreet, S. J., from 1851.

21. Bernard A. Magiure, S. J., from 1352.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

191

much

of the Father of the faithful. At Phihulelphia the funeral oration
on Gregory XVI. was pronounced by the Rev. Father O'Dvvyer,
in the presence of the city authorities and the two foreign con-
suls— for the noble attitude of the aged pontiff' in his interview
with the Emperor of Russia had rendered his name popular
among the Protestants.

But this unusual sympathy for the successor of St. Peter was
especially manifested in America on the glorious accession of
Pius IX., June 16, 1846, and on the generous measures by which
he inaugurated his reign. The enthusiasm of the faithful was, as
is well known, perfidiously imitated by the Italian revolutionists ;
and they thus obeyed the word of command of Mazzini, who
deemed it the best mode of overthrowing the Pope to attack him
at first by praise. The echo of the magnificent popular ovations
decreed to Pius IX. resounded even beyond the Atlantic ; and
the citizens of the United States wished in their turn to show
their admiration for the person and acts of the Sovereign Pontiflf.
Meetings were called in the principal cities of the Union, and
after eloquent speeches, addresses were resolved upon to bear to
the Holy Father the spontaneous tribute of American sympathy
Some Italians, or some demagogues, who had crept into the com-
mittees, in vain endeavored to disfigure these demonstrations of
the people, by voting for addresses to the Roman people instead
of felicitations to the prince raised by Heaven to the government
of the States of the Church. But the reasonable instinct of the
Protestant republicans preserved them from the snares laid by
these agitators ; they were wise enough then in the United States
to understand that all the nations of Europe are not made for
republics ; they merely wished to see constitutions granted by
the sovereign instead of extorted by the people ; and the address
voted at New York by a meeting of six thousand persons, pre-
sided over by the mayor of the cit}-, contained these remarkable
words :

192

THE CATHOLIC CHUKCH

;; i

1 1 '

?li!

i "

)

"' 1

Wt'i

a^t\

, 'i

' s *

" And more formithible than all these, you must have girded
yourself to cncouuter, and by Cod's help to overcome, that tickle-
uess and ingratitude of multitudes just released from benumbing
bondage which could (damor in the wilderness to be led back to
the flesh-pots of Egjpt ; which among the contemporaries, and
even the followei-s of our Saviour, could leave him to bear in soli-
tude the agony of his cross ; and which in your case, we appie-
hend, will yet manifest itself in unreasonable expectations, extrav-
agant hopes, impetuous requirements, and in murmurings that
nothing hfis been earnestly intended, because every thing has not
already been accomplished."*

On the 10th of January, 1848, the inhabitants of Philadelphia,
the second city in the Union, held in turn their enthusiastic
)neeting, and their address closed with this touching invocation :

'* May the Almighty grant you length of life, strength of heart,
and wisdom from on high, in order to bring to a happy conclu-
sion the beneficent reforms which you have begun ! May He
inspire the princes and people of Italy with the courage and
moderation necessary to second your efforts ! May He raise up
to you successors, who will continue to extend the influence of
peace and justice on earth ; and the time will come when the
meanest of God's poor will, if oppressed, be able to summon the
most powerful of his oppressors to appear at the bar of united
Christendom ; and the nations will sit in judgment upon him,
and the oppressor, blushing with shame, shall be forced, by their
unanimous and indignant voice, to render justice to the op-
pressed."

Thus did the Protestants of America then, by their avowed
wishes, call for the moment when the Papacy should once more
sit as a supreme tribunal, judging kings and nations. They saw

* Proceedings of the public demonstration of sympathy with Pope Pius
IX. and with Italy, in the city of New York, on Monday, Nov. 29, 1847.
New York : Van Norden, 1847 (pp. 60), p. 80.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

193

Ivowed
more

by saw

pe Pius
J, 1847.

tliat in tlio niiildlo ages tlie people owed to that august power
their eutViiiiclilscmoiit from the slavery of their masters, and that
the uations relapsed into unarchy or servitude us soon as princea
threw off this salutary check. To point to the restoration of the
spiritual authority of the Holy See over the monarchs, as the best
remedy against the oppressions of humanity, was, however, too
sincere an avowal to bo lasting, and they were soon seei*, in spite
of their enthusiastic professions, siding with those who revolted
against the Sovereign Pontiff. Some Italians, as we have re-
marked, took part in these sympathetic meetings. They were
then the first and foremost in America to cry "Pio Nino,"
though on the very eve of casting off this mask, and declaring
themselves open enemies of the Papacy. One of them, Avezzana,
became Minister of War of the Roman Republic ; another, Fo-
resti, presided in 1854 at the most violent meetings against the
apostolical envoy, Monseigneur Bedini ; a third, Secchi de Casali,
editor of a miserable Italian sheet at New York, became the
seide of Gavazzi, and his pen is more envenomed against the
Catholics than even his master's tongue. And these men were
the warm admirers of Pius IX. in 1846.

The Catholics were more persevering in their love ; and when
they heard of the assassination of Rossi (November 16, 1848),
and the escape of the Holy Father, eight days later, their filial
respect for the persecuted Pontiff redoubled. As the stay of
Pius IX. at Gaeta was expected to be only temporary, they asked
where in the whole world ho would retire during the anarchy
which ravaged the eternal city ; and the faithful in the United
States flattered themselves that the Pope would come to seek a
generous hospitality from the great republic of the New World.
The Archbishop of Baltimore was the organ of this unanimous
voice, and on the 18tli of January, 1849, Feast of the Exaltation of
the Chair of St. Peter, Archbishop Eccleston wrote to the Sovereign
Pontiff to beg him to honor Maryland with his sacred presence :

■^

ii.

!! :

1 1

194

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

" Our seventh Council of Baltimore is to be held on the 0th of
May next. We are perhaps too hold, Holy Father, in asking and
hoping that, if possible, the shadow of I'eter may even transiently
gladden us, and give us new strength and courage. IIow great
an honor and support to our rising Church ! Avhat joy and fervor,
what fruits and pledges of communion throughout our whole
republic,* if your Holiness, yielding to our unanimous wishes,
would but stand amid the prelates jissembled from the most re-
mote shores of North America, and deign to console and honor
us and our flocks with your apostolic advice and paternal bless-
ing ! The Council might easily, if your Holiness so direct, be
deferred to a more convenient time, and so far as our poverty
permits, nothing shall be wanting to make every thing a comfort
and joy to our Most Holy Father."*

Deprived of the happiness of being presided over by the suc-
cessor of the pi-ince of the apostles, the Fathers of the seventh
Council of Baltimore wished to show their lively sympathy, by
ordering a collection to be made in their dioceses, in the nature
of Peter's pence. This spontaneous tribute produced about
twenty-six thousand dollars, which was transmitted to the Pope's
Nuncio, at Paris, by the Archbishop of Baltimore.

The Council met on the 6th of May, 1849 ; twenty-five bishops
were present ; and by the first and second decrees, the Fathers
proclaimed that the devotion of the clergy and faithful of the

* L'Orbe Cattolico a Pio IX. Pontifice Massimo esulante da Roma. Na-
poli, 1850; vol. i. 248. This work, published by t) e Civiltii Cattolica, con-
tains the letters of condolence and sympathy addressed to the Holy Father
by the bishops of the whole world on the news of his exile to Gaeta — a
magnificent monument of the unanimity of the Church and its communion
with its head. Besides the letter of the Archbishop of Baltimore, we re-
mark letters from the Bishop of Natchez and the Bishop of Wallawalla and
Nesqualy, but we do not perceive the beautiful letter addressed to Pope
Pius, on the 13th of May, 1849, by the Fathers of the seventh Council of
Baltimore : and yet that important document merits an honorable place in
Buch a collection.

' i .

'h r;

U'ntod States tn n. T -^^^

«■■■■ «"■>■ w:;:: :, r::^ ^-rr or ,„„ i„.,„, ,,,.

'■"«•"■' -■"' lively .,,,;:,;' "■"■;■" "•"' "» l>.-c.I,„c.3 wo, 1

<-g;a; at S,.I'aul for Mine,;, ',"''''''' '"■ "'" »"'« of

f-i^i 'o the United States, ^e ttu ' tf ' """ '""='^ ^-'
•on .'ctarded the exa,„i„„ti„„ of , ' t /"'" ^""'••'" Kovol,,.
IV having entered Eo.ne on" . ^th f !''^^°""-' I hnt „.e
f T' ">" ---"moa their acculmln "' ""'"''' '^'"^ 'ho CW
h 'otter of Angnst 0, 1850,Te ft ':''"'';'"'''««''"-.''«on.; and,
"more the Poniifica, briefe tli ^^ *"". "™™'"'^<' '" lial
now See of Wheeling .1, "■'".*""'S: Bishop VVhelan to , ,
O-iand to the See o'^ t::TuV"' ''"'■ "--'^ ^ »
•^" f St- Paul, the Rev. Wn tcUl f'?, '?'''' ^'■«'"' '° 'he
and the Rev. John Lan.y ,o t e Ve , " "" '«^ "^ K-''n.on.l,
ho Rev. Charles P. Men J ' '" ' "''r '""" "' ^anta Fe
Joseph Sadoc AIen,any SZ\" ?" '"' '■'=f"»'''. 'ho Rev
Ca«forni,a, a province eed d to It "' ^<='^ "' M^terey ia
'ho w.ar of me.f '"^ '° "'" ^"""l S'a'es by Me.xieo,!C

Joseph tC; „V;?,f y- ^°l"=»">«r 80, S, '"'""""='• W. 18«, ilicci „,

190

'niK CATIIOMC ciii'ucri

f »

Till) l)is}i(>|)H also propuscd siillVan^ans f(»r flio mt'ti'npolitftu S»'o
of St. Louis, wliii'h tlu! Holy Sc-f had, l»y brii^f of July 'JO, 1H47,
raisi'il to iho dignity of an an'lii<')»iscoj>al Scd. Many of tlio
bi.sliopH Ii/kI opposed the division, but now yielding to the voico
of Peter, (hey proposed other ecclesiastical provinces, and to tho
Archbishop of St. Louis assigned as sutlVagans, tho Hisiiops of
Dubucjuo, Nashville, St. Paul, Chicago, and Milwaukio. New
apostolic briefs, of the lOlh of July, 1850, contirnied this, and at
the same time erected into nietro})olitan churches —

1st. Tho See of New Orleans, with Mobile, Natchez, Littlo
Rock, and Oalveston us sullVagans.

2(1. Tiio See of Cincinnati, with Louisville, Detroit, Vincennes,
and Cleveland as suflVagana.

.3d. 1'he See of New York, with B(^ston, Hartford, Albany, and
IJutlalo as suffragans.

By this division, the Archbishop of naltinioro retained as his
suffragans only tho Bishops of riiiladelphia, Richmond, Wheeling,
Savannah, Charleston, and Tittsburg. The United States wero
thus divided into six ecclesiastical provinces, including tho prov-
ince of Oregon, erected July 24, 1840.

Admirable fecundity of tho Church, which, amid its greatest
trials, gives birth to now folds ! While the enemies of religion
believed that they had destroyed tho I'apacy at Rome, a hierar-
(ihical organization, full of the future, was preparing in America.
The prelates awaited with the most respectful deference the end
of tho Revolution, so that the Holy Father might confirm their
decrees ; and one of the first acts of Pius IX., on his complete
restoration to his temporal and spiritual power, was to approve

•\nth five other missionaries of Auvergne ; was consecrated Bishop of Agutho
in partihua, and Viear-apostolic of New Mexico, November 24, 1850.

Joseph Sadoc Alemany, a Dominican, born in Catalonia, then exiled to
Italy, but coming to America, became provincial of the Order, was conse-
crated at Rome, second Bishop of Monterey, in 1850, and transferred to the
archbishopric of Sun Franci-^co, July 29, 1853.

li^'H

IH47,
of U»o
i voice

to tbo

\0\)A of

New
jind at

, Litllo

[loennes,

(iny, and

\ as bis

liecliug,

tes were

10 prov-

jxreatest
religion

iiierar-

Luiorica.

the end

inn their

fiomplete

approve

jf Agutho

exiled to
jaa conse-
Icd to the

IN TllK UNITED STATKS.

197

the proposjila of the Council at B.-iltinioro. By a romrnkaMo
coincidence, the erection of liaitinutre into n jnefropolitan See hinl
been elfected in 1808, at a nionitjnt when I'ins VII. was the vie-
tiin of persecution, and the; bnlls of installation, retarded by the
iuiprisomneiit of that holy Tontitf, and by the death of the hishop
who was bringing them to this coi'iitry, reached the United
States only in 1810.

Before separating, the bishops addressed pastoral letters to the
clergy and laity of their dioceses, elegantly expressive of the grief
which they felt to witness the outrages ollered to the Holy See.
"We are not subject to the Sovereign Tontitf as a tenipt)ral
power, and are devotedly attached to the republican institutions
under which we live. We feel ourselves to bo impartial judges
of the events which have resulted in his llight from the capitul,
and of the subsequent attempts to strip him of all civil power ;
yet as friends of order and liberty, wo cannot but lament that his
enlightened policy has not been suffered to develop itself, and
that violence and outrage have disgraced the proceedings of those
who proclaim themselves the friends of social progress. Wo
must at the same time avow our conviction that the temporal
J)rincip^dity of the Roman States has served ii. the order of Divine
Providence, for the free and unsuspicious exercise of the spiritual
functions of the Pontificate, and for the advancement of tho
interests of religion by fostering institutions of charity and learn-
ing. Were the Bishop of Rome the subject of a civil ruler or
the citizen of a republic, it might be feared that he would not
always enjoy that freedom of action which is necessary, that his
decrees and measures be respected by the faithful throughout the
world. We know, indeed, that if at any time it please God to
suffer him to be permanently deprived of all civil power, He will
divinely guard tho free exercise of his spiritiial authority, jis was the
case during the first three ages, under the reign of the pagan empe-
rors, when the bishops of Rome displayed an apostolic energy,

198

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

which was everywhere felt and respected. On account of the
more excellent principality attached to the Church of Rome from
the beginning, as founded by the glorious apostles, Peter and
Paul, every local church — that is, all Christians in every part of
the world — felt bound to harmonize in faith with that most
ancient and illustrious Chnch, and to cherish inviolably her com-
munion. The successor of Peter, even under circumstances so un-
favorable, watched over the general interests of religion in Asia and
Africa, as well as Europe, and authoritatively proscribed every
error opposed to divine revelations, and every usage pregnant
with danger to its integrity.

" The Pontifical office is of divine institution, and totally inde-
pendent of all the vicissitudes to which the temporal principality
is subject. When Christ our Lord promised to Peter that He
would build his church on him as a rock, He gave him the
assurance that the gates of hell — that is, the powers of darkness
— should not prevail against it ; which necessarily implies that
his office is fundamental and essential to the Church, and must
continue to the end of time. Peter was constituted pastor of the
lambs and sheep — namely, of the whole flock of Christ — which
through him is one fold under one shepherd. Our Lord, at his
last supper, prayed that his disciples, and those who through
their ministry should believe in Him, might be one, even as He
and the Father are one ; and as He is always heard, we cannot
doubt that this unity is an inseparable characteristic of the
Church ; whence the office of the chief pastor, by which unity is
maintained, can never cease. We exhort you, brethren, to con-
tinue steadfast in your attachment to the chair of Peter, on which
you know that the Church is built. Since it has pleased Divine
Providence to establish that chair in the city of Kome, the capital
of the pagan world, in order to show forth in the most striking
manner the power of Christ, he is a schismatic and prevaricator
who attempts to establish any other chair in opposition to the

IN THE UNITED STATES.

199

y inde-
cipality
bat He
lim the
arkness
les that
d must
of the
■which
j, at his
through
as He
cannot
of the
Anity is
,0 con-
which
Divine
capital
;tr iking
,ricator
to the

Roman See or independent of it. That Church was consecrated
by the martyrdom of the apostles, Peter and Paul, who be-
queathed to her their whole doctrine with their blood. Christ
our Lord has placed the doctrine of truth in the chair of unity,
and has charged Peter and his successor to confirm their breth-
ren, having prayed specially that the faith of Peter may not fail.
By means of the uninterrupted tradition of that Church, coming
down through the succession of bishops from the apostles, we
confound those who through pride, self-complacency, or any
other perverse influence, teach otherwise than divine revelation
warrants, and attempt to adulterate the doctrine, which, as pure
streams from an unpolluted fountain, flows hence throughout the
whole world."*

We see how the bishops of the United States maintained a close
and firm union with the centre of Catholicity, and how imbued
their teachings were with a sincere devotedness to the Holy See at
the very moment when the tempest raged in all its fury against
the sacred rock of the Church. After such striking proofs of a
perfect orthodoxy, it is consoling to read what the first Bishop of
Baltimore wrote in 1791, one year after his consecration :

"On the 1th. of next month," says Archbishop Carroll, "our
clergy are to meet here in a diocesan synod ; then we shall dis-
cuss the mode of preserving the succession to the episcopacy of
the United States. Instead of a coadjutor, I am much inclined
to solicit a division of my diocese and the creation of another
bishopric. One only objection, of much weight, retards my de-
termined resolution in favor of this scheme, and that is, that pre-
vious to such a step a uniform discipline may be established in
all parts of this great continent, and every measure so firmly
concerted, that as little danger as possible may remain of a dis-
union with the Holy See. I am very fearful of this event taking

* Catholic Almanac, 1850, p. 51.

i 'V

i '

-ll

H: 1.

200

THE CATHOLIC CHUKCH

place in succeotliiig time, unless it be guarded against by every
prudential precaution. Our distance, though not so great if geo-
metrically ineasiued, as South America, Goa, and China, yet in a
political light is much greater. South America and the Portu-
guese possessions in Africa and Asia have, through their metro-
political countries, an intermediate connection with Rome ; and
the missionaries in China are almost all Europeans. But we
have no European metropolis, and our clergy soon will be neither
Europeans nor have European connections. Then will be the
danger to a propensiou to a schismatical separation from the
centre of unity. But the Founder of the Church sees all these
things and can provide the remedy. After doing what we can,
we must commit the rest to His Providence."*

His Providence has not been wanting, and the spectacle pie-
sented by the hierarchy of the United States sixty years after its
venerable founder betrayed his well-founded anxiety for the pres-
ervation of the bonds of unity, can only inspire us with increased
confidence for the future.

Archbishop Eccleston, who had the honor of presiding over
five of the councils of Baltimore, considered the interest of the
Church at large more important than the particular rank of his
metropolitan See, and without opposition, accepted that division
of ecclesiastical provinces which reduced Baltimore to the same
rank as its former suffragans of New York and Cincinnati. The
seventh Council had asked that the primatial dignity should be
attached to the See of Baltimore, on account of the priority of its
origin. In a new counuy like the United States, an historic
existence of half a century is almost antiquity. The Holy See
deemed proper to defer this oflScial favor, but the Archbishop of
Baltimore nevertheless preserved a sort of honorable primacy,
and he was specially invested in 1853 with the functions of

* Brent's Biographical Sketch of Archhishop Ciirrol!, p. 153.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

201

g over
of tlie
of liis
ivision
same
The
Lild be
of its
listoric
[ly See
lop of
macy,
ins of

Apostolical Legate of the First National Council of the United
States.

Archbishop Eccleston also distinguished his episcopate by his
labors for the completion of his cathedral. To him it is indebted
for the second tower and the interior and the exterior decoration
of a portion of the pile. The prelate wished to raise the portico,
the absence of which injures the facade of the cathedral, but un-
fortunately death did not permit him. Although apparently in
good health, his constitution was very delicate, and God called
the archbishop to Himself, at an age when he might still hope to
render long service to the Church. The archbishop visited
Georgetown early in April, 1851, intending to make only a short
stay there, but sickness detained him, and he expired piously on
the 22d of April. The calmness, patience, amenity, and piety
which he displayed during his last days were truly edifying, and
one of the religious who attended the venerable sufferer, wrote to
her companions some hours before the fotal moment : " Could
you have been at our Father's side since the beginning of his ill-
ness, what angelic virtue Avould you not have witnessed ! Such
perfect meekness, humility, patience, and resignation ! Not a
murmur, not a complaint has escaped his lips. Truly has lie
most beautifully exemplified in himself those lessons which, in
health, he preached to others. In losing liim, we lose indeed a
devoted father, a vigilant superior, a sincere and most disinterested
friend."

To take the mortal remains of the worthy prelate to his metro-
politan See, the funeral had to cross Washington, the capital of
the Union ; the procession, which Avas nearly a mile long, slowly
wended its way through the principal street, chanting, amid the
tolling of the bells, the psalms of the ritual ; the clergy were
arrayed in their proper vestments, and among the distinguished
persons who followed the corpse weie seen the Frcsident of the
United States, his Cabinet, and the membere of the diplomatic

1':

202

THE CATHOLIC CIlURCn

ns.

i ■ .1,

Mi '. t

■ !

iimi

1 '■

1 '

i-'l

■ : I 9>
■■ ■■ ' l''

i :i i
In M

iVliilo tlu! ExGoutivo poAvcr tlius honored tlie Outholic
iclii^ion in its pastors, in the face of heaven and earth, at that
very time the Queen of England, wlio has nine millions of Cath-
olic subjects in Europe, allowed her ministry to insult them and
provoke a fanatical agitation, on no better pretext than the re-
cstablishment of the Episcopal hierarchy.

"Archbishop Eccleston," says his biographer, "was gifted with
talents of a high order. He had a penetrating mind, which he
liad cultivated by a laborious study, and enriched with varied
learning. As a preacher of the words of God, he Avas regarded
as eloquent, graceful and persuasive, displaying great zeal and
piety in all he uttered, and was sure to enlist the undivided at-
tention of his hearers. It may not be useless to record here a
fact, which is remarkable in the history of the Catholic ministry
in this country, that shortly before his elevation to the priesthood,
young Eccleston was invited to deliver a prayer at the public
celebration in Baltimore of the 4th of July, anniversary of ouv
national independence. He accepted the invitation, and appeared
before the vast assemblage of people, vested in cassock, surplice,
and stole ; and while as a minister of God he invoked the divine
blessing upon the nation, and exhibited the approval of a free
government and popular liberty by the Church, he delighted his
inuiiense audience by his eloquent appeal to the throne of mercy,
and the pleasing manner of its delivery.

"In person the archbishop was tall and commanding, and re-
markable for his gi'aceful deportment and ease in conversation.
No one ever approached him familiarly without being pleased
with him or without an increased respect for his person. His
piety was of the highest order. No one could look upon him
without being impressed with the idea that he was a true prelate
of the Church. Ever unostentatious and unassuming, his great
aim was to do good to all men, seeking the will of his great
Master. His study was to please Him, regardless of tlie world,

IN THE UNITED STATES.

203

|id re-
lation,
leased
His
him
relate
Igreat
Igreat
/orld,

which would willingly have heaped upon him its choicest honors,
had he not studiously fled from them."*

On the death of Archbishop Eccleston, the See of Baltimore
did not long remain vacant, and by letters apostolic of August 3,
1861, the Rt. Rev. Francis P. Kenrick was transferred from the
See of Philadelphia to the archbishopric of Baltimore. By a
brief of the 19 th of August in the same year, the Sovereign Pon-
tiff appointed Archbishop Kenrick apostolic delegate, to preside
at the National Council of the entire episcopate of the United
States. This Couiicil met on the 9th of May, 1852 ; six arch-
bishops and twenty-six bishops took part in its deliberations, and
the most important measure which they proposed to the Holy
See, was to create new dioceses, in order to multiply on the im-
mense surface of the American continent the centre of action and
vigilance, and in order that, in no point, the faithful be out of the
reach of visits from their first pastors. If there were questions of
dignities, rendered attractive by the honors, power, or riches of
earth, we might see in this development of the episcopate, human
reasons and motives of ambition. But in the United States, the
mitre is only a fearful burden, with none of the consolations
Avhich lighten it elsewhere ; and the prelates are but venerable
mendicants, ever extending the hand for daily bread, for means
to raise the humble shrines that form their cathedrals and
churches. Imagine one of these missionaries, on whom the Holy
See imposes the burden of a diocese, and imprints the apos-
tolic character. The new bishop has every thing to create ; he
finds only a few priests scattered here and there, entirely insuffi-
cient for a country where immigration periodically brings crowds
of Irish and German Catholics, who are to be preserved, and still
more, whose children are to be preserved from the allurements of
error. He must build a church and a dwelling, found a seminary

* Notice of Archbishop Eccleston in Catliolic Almanac for 1852, p. 60.

1 1 ' -^

11,;/

iF' ''

jyj

204

THE CATIIOIJC CIIURCir

and schools, elicit, vocations by his influence, and confirm tliA
faithful in the truth; gather around him Brothers and communi-
ties of Sisters, provide by unceasing toil for the subsistence of
these fellow-laborers, travel constantly on horseback or on foot, in
snow or rain, preach at all hours, hear confessions without re-
spite, visit the sick, and watch everywhere to preserve intact the
sacred deposit of faith and morality. Such is the life of an
American prelate appointed to found a new diocese — a life of
bodily fatigue, like that of the humblest missiouaiy, but with all
the responsibility of a bishop. Most frequently such duties are
accepted through obedience by him whom the Iloly See deems
courageous enough to fulfil them ; and the new diocese soon sees
churches and convents arise, the clergy multiply, and the piicst
stand beside the pioneer in the latest clearings. Such is the his-
tory of religion in America since the commencement of this
century, and the future promises that in spite of the trials of the
last few years, this development will npt cease.

By his apostolic letter of July 29, 1853, the Holy Father ap-
proved most of the propositions of the National Council, and in
the ecclesiastical province of Baltimore he founded the new dio-
cese of Erie, a dismemberment of that of Pittsburg. In tho
province of New York the Sees of Burlington and Portland were
detached from Boston, and those of Brooklyn and Newark were
detached from the diocese of New York. lu the province of
Cincinnati the diocese of Covington was formed of the eastern
portion of Kentucky, which, till then, had formed part of the dio-
cese of Louisville. The province of St. Louis was increased by
the See of Quincy, and that of New Orleans by the See of Natchi-
toches. In California, San Francisco was raised to the dignity of
a metropolis, with Monterey as a suffiagan See; and finally.
Upper Michigan was made a Vicariate-apostolic. We shall
speak of these different erections when we treat of the provinces
and States in which they are comprised. Rome deferred acced-

IN THE UNITED STATES.

205

lio-

:hi-

Illy,

lall

Ices
led-

ing to the request of the Council, only with regard to raising tho
See of Boston to the metropolitan dignity, and with regard to
making Wilmington a See and Flonda a Vicariate-apostolic.*

Before separating, the Fathers of the Council addressed a pas-
toral letter to the clergy and faithful of the United States. It
lays down rules for ecclesiastical property, and declares tliat the
administration of bodies of trustees shall be subject to the a})-
proval of the bishop of the diocese. It solemnly condemns secret
societies and Free Masonry, calling to mind the decrees of the
Holy See against such societies. It shows tho astonishing pro-
gress of the Church in America, and stimulates the cliarity of the
faithful to meet its wants. It makes it a duty in families not to
crush the ecclesiastical or religious vocations of their childran,
but on the contrary, to encourage them by a good education and
sound principles. Finally, it condemns the detestable system of
the public schools, where children of all denominations are ad-
mitted, and religion scrupulously excluded. The future of tho
Church is in the Catholic education of the youth, and hence the

* Rev. Ilcnry D. Coskery was appointed to the Sco of Portland, and ori
his declining, the Rev. David W. Bacon, of Brooklyn, was elected and con-
secrated at New York, in April, 1855.

Rev. Louis de Goesbriand, elected Bishop of Burlington, Rev. John
Longhlin, elected Bishop of Brooklyn, and Rev. James Roosevelt Eaylcy,
elected Bishop of Newark, were consecrated at New York, Oct. 30, 1853, by
Monseigneur Bedini, Nuncio of Ills Holiness Pope Pius IX.

Father George Carrell, S. J., elected Bishop of Covington, was consecrated
at Cincinnati, Nov. 1, 1853. The Very Rev. Joseph Melcher, of St. Louis,
was elected Bishop of Quincy, and the diocese is still administered by tho
Bishop of Chicago. The Very Rev. Augustus Martin, elected Bishop of
Nachitoches, was consecrated Dec. 30, 1853.

Rt. Rev. Michael O'Connor was at first transferred to Erie, but remained
at Pittsburg, and the Rt. Rev. Josue M. Young was consecrated April 23,
1854.

Rev. Thaddeus Amat, elected Bishop of Monterey, was consecrated Marcli
12, 1854.

Rt. Rev. Frederick Baraga, Bishop of Amyzenie in part, and Vicar-apos-
toho of Upper Michigan, was consecrated Nov. 1, 1853, and is now Bishop
ofSautSt. Mary's.

3 ''1

■ i ;

'i!

(ii

i i

» ,: -^

200

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

1 1-

f. »

enoniies of the faith seek every means to force upon CatholicA
tlicir schools and unchristian systems.

Since Archbishop Carroll, six archbishops liavo succeeded
in the metropolitan Sec of Baltimore, and each of them has had
a share in the consoling progress of religion in the diocese, as
well as in the country at largo, by presiding over eight Councils;
and thus contributing to organize and develop the episcopal hie-
rarchy over the length and breadth of the United States. In
1856, Maryland and the District of Columbia contain eighty-
eight churches, forty-five other stations, one hundred and thirty
priests, of whom seventy-three perform parocliial duties, and two
lumdred and two levites preparing for the sanctuary. Three ec-
clesiastical seminaries, two of which are directed by Sulpitians, a
Jesuit and a Redemptorist novitiate, four colleges of the Society
of Jesus, one directed by secular priests, five academies and
boarding-schools for young ladies, directed by the Visitation
Nuns, one by Sistei's of Charity, and many Catholic schools for
children of both sexes, show the care with which the youth are
.trained in science and piety. The Sisters of Charity have also
an orphan asylum, a lunatic asylum, and hospital, capable of
liolding one hundred and fifty sick persons ; the Oblates devote
themselves to colored children, while the Sisters of Notre Dame
take care of the children of the Germans ; finally, the pious Car-
melites draw down God's blessing on the diocese, where works of
charity and educatioi' have multiplied so abundantly within sixty
years.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

207

CHAPTER XIV.

also

of
xty

PENNSYLVANIA (1680-1810).

First mlsfliuns ftt Pblladolphia, Goslienhoppen, Conowago, Lancaster — Influence ot
French Intervention in Becurlng respoct and tolcriitlon for Catholicity— The Augiw-
Unians In Pennsylvania— The Franciscans— Bclilsm in the German Church of the
Holy Trinity— Foundation of the episcopal See of Philudclphla.

The English Jesuits iu Maryland did not limit their care to
tlie missions regularly assigned to them. We have seen them, in
the ardor of their zeal, hrave persecution and death in the neigh-
horing colony of Virginia, seeking the few Catholics scattered
over its vast surface. The same apostolic spint led to Pennsyl-
vania the missionaiies of 'the Society of Jesus. They extended
their sphere of action to the north as well as to the south of their
residences; hence, after sketching the history of the Church in
the diocese of Baltimore, we naturally pass to the relation of the
commencement of the faith in the province which formed the dio-
cese of Philadelphia.

The peaceful sect of Fi-iends reveres as its founder the shoo-
inaker, George Fox, who began his preaching at Nottingham in
1649. Persecuted by the partisans of Anglicanism, the Quakers
resolved to seek a refuge in America, as the Puritans had re-
solved to do in 1620 ; and in 16*75 a company of Friends pur-
chased of Lord Bei'keley the western part of New Jersey, lying
on the Delaware river. In 1680, W^illiam Penn obtained a grant
of the right bank of the same river, and King Charles IL, iu his
charter, gave the new colony the name of Pennsylvania.

Notwithstanding his distinguished birth and vast fortune, Penn,

208

TIIK CATHOLIC CHURCH

r !

*i'i

who had boon oduoatod at the Calvinist coUogo at Saumur in
Franco, was st^hicod l>y tho philaiilhropical idoas of (ho innova-
tors. A son of tho bravo Achnh'al IVnn who had wrostod Ja-
maica from tho Spaniards, lie had inhoritod, as part of liis
})atriniony, a largo claim against tho crown. Charles II., who
spent his money in other pursuits than tho payment of his debts
or those of tho nation, discharged this by giving William Tenn a
colony, and tho latter, wishing to take possession, landed iu
America in October, 1082.*

Tho new proprietor explored tho country on the Delaware, in
order to select a spot suitable for tho establishment of tho now
colony, and in the month of Jamiarj', 108.1, he laid out the plan
of Philadelphia, tho City of Brotherly Love. Tho preceding
month, tho principal settlors had mot in conventiort at Chester,
and under the guidance of Ponn, had enacted as the law of I'onn-
sylvania, that as God is the only judge of man's conscience, every
Christian, without distinction of sect, should bo eligible to public
employments. Tho only restriction ofi individual liberty estab-
lished by tho rigid Quakers was tho prohibition of all balls, thea-
tres, masquerades, cock and bull fights ;f and we cannot blame
them for endeavoring to banish these occasions of vice and disor-
der. Tho toleration of William Penn, an imitation of Lord P)al-
timore's, is a striking contrast to the Protestant fanaticism which
then obtained in New England and Virginia. Tho colony in-
creased raj)idly, and the innnigratiou was not confined to the
natives of England and Germany, where the doctrines of Quaker-
ism had made progress. Irish Catholics hoped to find liberty of
worship in Pennsylvania, nor were tliey deceived by the inten-
tions of the honored founder of that colony ; but the Protestant
Bishop of London had inserted iu tho charter a provision guar-
anteeing in Pennsylvania security for the Church oslabiislied by

» Bancroft, History of the Uuitcd States, ii. 848.

f Idem.

IN THE UNITED 8TATKS.

2()!i

ister,

eun-

ivery

iLlic

ttib-

lieu-

jiine

lisor-

r.ai-

lich
iii-
tlie

Iker-

Iten-

Hllt

lijir-
by

law, and ns Aiif^licaiiisin feels sccuro only wlioro ('alli<)li(!ity is
banisluMl or opprcsscil, tliis danst^ loiifr fotfcred t.lio iiburty of tlio
faithful at 1'hila(Icli>liia and its n(>i^lil)(>rhoo(l.

Tlio trno faith socnis, howovor, to liavo boon tohnratod in I'onn-
sylvania from tlio very first, and iiidced i'onn was too cIoho a
friend, and afterwards too devoted a subject of the Catholic, kinij,
Janios II., to have boon unfriendly to (Jalholic^s. The first (Cath-
olic settlors woro doubtless attend<Ml by a ]»riest, as those of Mary-
land had been by Father White; for in 1G80 — that is, thn^o
years after the founding of riiiladelphia — William I'enn mentions
(III old 2»'i(^st nmong the inhabitants. In 1708, in a letter ad-
dressed from England to James Logan at IMiiladelphia, Penn,
then himself under the suspicion of the new government for his
attachment to James, wrote : "There is a complaint against your
government tliat you suffer public Mass in a scandalous manner.
Pray send the matter of fact, for ill use is made of it against us
hero." And in a subsequent letter he returns to it in these
terms : " It has become a reproach to me here, with the ofIi(;ers
of the crown, that you have suffered the scandal of Mfiss to bo
l)ubli(!ly celebrated."

Bernard U. Campbell, citing these curious extracts from Wat-
son's Annals of Philadelphia, adds that the first chapel where
divine worship was oftered in 1G86 was a wooden building on
the northwest comer of Front and Walnut streets.* Watson
speaks of a second chapel, built before 1*736, on the corner of
Chestnut and Second streets, and says that it was built " for u
papal chapel, and that the people opposed its being so used in so
])ublic a place."

We know, too, that in 1*729 a Catholic cliapel existed at a
short distance from Philadelphia, on the road from Nicetown to
Frankfort, and that it was built by Miss Elizabeth McGawley, a

* Life and Times of Archbishop Carroll. Cath. Mag., 1845, p. 252.

' j

011

;■

m -

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' t1 ^i '

? * i

!«= i

210

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

yoiiiitr Irish laily, who hiul settled in that part with a nuinlHT of
licr tenants. It is probablo that this chapel was consiiK'roil as
fc Milliner |»iirt of Miss McdawK^y's houso, which enabled the Cath-
olics to n\ci!t there under tho protection of a privuto houso.
Watson remarks that in a field noar tho site of this ancient
chapel, a marble tombstone bears a cross, with the inscrij)tion —
"John Michael Hrown ob. 16 Dec. A. I). 1700. R. I. IV This
was th(! priest attached to the mission, and his tomb did not
escape the fury of tho fanatics who in 1844 set tiro to two of the
Catholic churches in I'hiladelphia. Tho gravestono was broken
by those iniscroants, who sought to glut on tho memory of the
dead their hatred of the living.

In tlio year 1730, Fatlicr Josiah Greaton, a Jesuit, was sent
from Marylatid to Philadelphia, and according to a tradition pre-
served by Archbisliop Neale, ho entered on his duties in the
following interesting way : Father Greaton knew a Catholic at
Lancaster named Doyle, and applied to him for tho names of
some of the faithful in rhiladelphia. Doyle named a wealthy
old lady, remarkable for her attachment to flio faith, and the
missionary soon called upon the lady, attired in tho grave, staid
dross of a Quaker. After various questions as to the number of
Cltvistian sects in tho city. Father Greaton made himself known,
to the lady's great joy. She immediately informed her Catholic
neighbors that she had a priest in tho house. He first exercised
his ministry in the humble chapel at the corner of Front and
"Walnut streets, and in 1733, aided by the liboraHty of uis hostess,
he bought a lot in Fourth-street, and erected tho little chapel of
St. Joseph. The next year tho authorities took umbrage at this,
and Governor Gordon made a report to the Council on the recent
erection in Wahmt-street of a Roman Mass-house for the public
celebration of Mass, c'ttrary to the statute of William III.
Kalm, the Swedish travel. ■, who visited Philadelphia in 1749,
says that the Catholics \\:..d ■.. en , " in the southwest part of the

IN TlIK I'NITKI) STATLS.

21 1

llic

III.

town, a groat houso, which is well u(Jornc<l within, and liM un
organ."*

"Father fiivnton," says Archliishop Carroll, in a nianuacrijrt
Hiill preserved, "laid the foundation of that cwiigregatioii now so
flourishing. He lived there till ahout the year IT^O, long })efore
whieh he huil succeedecl in huilding tho old chapel which is still
conti'"M IS CO Mie preshytery of that town, and in aas<'nd)ling n
nnmoiotH Con rremition, which, at his first uointr thith«'r, did not
coii.ist i.f metre than ten or twelve persons. 1 ri'niend)cr to have
'oon this vciierahlo man at the liead of Ids Hock in tho year
1748."

Father Ciroaton was assisted for sonio time at I'hiladeljdiia by
Father Henry Nealo, also of ins Society, who died there in I748,f
and being himself soon after recalled to Maryland, was succeeded
by Fatlier Robert Harding, an English religious, who had been
on the Maryland mission since Ili]2. The late learned Mr.
Campbell could not discover where tliis Jesuit wjus employed be-
fore 1750. Tn that year wo find liim pastor of St. Joseph's,
and for twenty years later fulfilling the duties of that post with
exemplary zeal and fidelity. As a stationary assistant, he had
from 1758 Father Ferdinand Farmer, charged especially with tho
direction of the German population; and in 17G3, Father Hard-
ing, finding St. Joseph's no longer sufticed for the constantly in-
creasing number of Catholics, began the erection of St. Mary's on

* Knlm's Trnvclri. Father JoBiali Grcnton, born about 1680, entered the
Pocioty r'i' Jesus on tho 5tli of .July, 1708, and became n rrofesscd Father,
' lurnst 4, 1719. IIo rcsideil at St. Iiiifijo's, in Maryhiiid, from 1721 to 1724.
After cxercisin^f his apostolate at IMiihulelpliia for nearly twenty years, lie
returned to Maryland, and died at Bol:cmia on tho I'Jth of September,
1752.

t Father Ilcnry Neale belonged to the excellent family which gave nine
members to the Society of Jesus in the last century. He returned to
America from Europe in 17-10, and died at IMiiladelphia on the 5th of May,
1748, in tho forty-sixth year of his age, and tho twenty-fourth of his rcligioua
career.

212

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

gruimd wliicli he had purchased.* Of this estimable rehgious,
Duche, a Protestant olergyinan, Nvriting just before his death,
bears the following testimony : " He is a well-bred gentleman,
and mueh esteemed, I am told, by all denominations of Christians
in this city, for his prudence, his moderation, liis known attach-
ment to British liberty, and his unaffected pious labors among the
people to whom he officiates."

In 1771, Father Robert ^lolyneux was attached to St. Joseph's
Church, and directed it till 1787, when he was recalled to Mary-
land.f Father Farmer and he contracted a most intimate friend-
ship, and they used this harmony for the good of religion. Both
learned, pious, untiring, they shared the labors of the ministry ;
and although Father Farmer was eighteen years older than his
friend, he always undertook the distant missions, as Father Moly-
neux's corpulence rendered travelling very difficult for him, while
the former, by his sermons, produced a great efiect among the
Germans and Irish.

While the Jesuits of Maryland thus zealously occupied the
capi'tal of Pennsylvania, they did not neglect the country parts;
and in 1741, two German Fathers were sent there to instruct and
convert the numerous immigrants who arrived from all parts of
Germany. In that year, Father Theodore Schneider, a native of
Bavaria, founded the mission of Goshenhoppen, forty-five miles

h'- 'i

* Caspipina'ts Letters ; London, 1777, vol. i. p. 136. Father Kobcrt Hard-
ing died at Philudelpliia on tlie Ist of September, 1772, in the seventy-first
year of his \go. Like all the missionaries of that epoch, his labors were not
limited to the city where lie was a pastor. He went to a f^reat distance to
administer the sacraments, and certificates of baptism celebrated l>y him are
found in New Jersey.

t Father Kobcrt Molyneux, born in Lancashire, June 24, 1738, a novice of
the Society of Jesus in 1757, was sent to Maryland soon after 1 is ordination,
and thence to Philadelphia in 1771. On the reorganization of the Society of
Jesus in 1803, he became the first Superior of Maryland, and was twice
President of Georgetown College. He refused to liooome Coadjutor of Bal-
timore, and died at Georgetown, December 0th, ISOS.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

213

from Philaclel}>hia. lie lived tliere in the utmost poverty for
more than twenty years ; lie built a church there in 1745, and
ministered to a very extensive district, going* once a month to
Philadelphia to hear the confessions of the Germans, till Father
Farmer was stationed in the residence in that city. So respected
was Father Schneider among the Germans, even the Protestant
part, that the Mennonites and Ilernhutters generously aided him
to build his church at Goshenhoppen. llis apostolic journeys led
liim to the interior of New Jersey, where fanaticism at first sought
his life. He was several times shot at ; but these attempts to
shorten his days diminished nothing of his zeal, knd he at last
made his visits objects of desire, even to Protestants, towards
whom, with infinite charity, he fulfilled the functions of bodily
physician, Avhen he could not become the physician of their souls.
A relic of this venerable missionary is preserved, which attests
alike his poverty and his industry. It is a complete copy of the
Roman Missal, in his handwriting, stoutly bound ; and the holy
Jesuit must have been destitute of every thing, to copy so pa-
tiently a quarto volume of seven hundred images of print. Father
Schneider died at the age of sixty-four, on the 10th of July,
1764,* having been visited in his illness the previous month by
Father Farmer ; and we believe that his successor at Goshenhop-
pen was Father Ritter. At least. Father Molyneux, in a letter to
Father Carroll, dated December 7th., 1784, speaks of Father Rit-
ter as ha\ing been for some years at Goshenhoppen, where the
congregation numbered five hundred comnumicants.f In 1747,
Father Henry Neale had purchased at Goshenhoppen one hun-

* Father Theodore Schneider, born in 1703, and a Jesuit from 1721, had.
been professor of pliilosophy and polemics at Liege, and also Rector Mag-
njficus of tlie University of Heidelburg, before coming to America. Hia
profession dates from 1720.

+ Tliis Fatlier is ajiparently the oncwliom Oliver mentions as John Baptist
Butter or Kuyter, a Belgian, who joined the English province about 1763,
and was sent to Pennsylvania, where he died, Feb. 3, 1786.

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dred and twenty-one acres of land, fur wliich he paid two liuu-
dred and fifty pounds sterling. The next year Father Greaton
paid the 2)i't)piietors of Pennsylvania fifty-one pounds for four
hundred and seventy-three acres in the same place, and this
property still belongs to the mission of Goshenhoppen, which tho
Jesuits continue to serve.

In 1741, Father William Wapeler,* the companion of Father
Schneider, founded the mission of Conewago, on the stream of
that name, thus again associating this local term with the mis-
sions of Catholicity, as his Society had already done on the Mo-
hawk and St. Lawrence. " He remained," says Father Carroll,
" about eight years in America, and converted or reclaimed many
to the faith of Christ, but was forced by bad health to return to
Europe." He retired to Ghejit, and then to Bruges, where this
worthy Jesuit closed his career in 1781, at the age of seventy.
Another celebrated missionary of Conewago is Father Pellentz,f
whose memory is in veneration throughout Pennsylvania, and we
find that in 1784 he numbered over a thousand communicants at
his mission. In 1791, we find him at the synod of Baltimore,
filling the post of Vicar-general of Bishop CaiToll's immense
diocese.

In 1741, Father Waj'Kjler had bought land at Lancaster, with
the intention of building a chapel there.J; Ten years after.
Father Farmer Avas attached to this residence, and remained
there in all the poverty and humility of an apostle till 1758.§

* Fatlicr William Wapelcr or Wappeler was born in Westphalia, January
22, 1711, and entered tlie Society of Jesus in 172>. Oliver's Collection,
p. 210.

+ Father James Pellcntz was horn in Germany, January 19, 1727, entered
the Society in 1744, and made his profession in 1750. Idem.

X In 1734, in consequence of fears of a war witii France, the missionary at
Lancaster became an object of suspicion, and the matter was brought before
the Council by Governor Gordon. Watson's Annals, ii. 256.

§ Father Ferdinand Fanner luxd translated into English Iv'i German name,
Bteenmeyer. He wat? born in the then Circle of Suabia, Oct. 13, 1720, eu-

IN THE UNITED STATES.

215

We have seen lilin exorcising at a later date the ministry at
Philadelphia, and to him New York is indebted for ihe organiza-
tion of the first Catholic congregation in that city. In 1*784, wo
find Father Geisler* at Lancaster with a congregation of seven
hundred communicants ; and the country parts of Pennsylvania
have thus seen the holy mysteries celebrated for more than a
century in the three chapels of Goshenhoppen, Conewago, and
Lancaster. From the origin of these missions, they were in part
sustained by a pious legacy of an English Catholic, Sir John
James, whose will was attacked ; but as the secret of his trusts
was preserved, the poor, and especially the poor Catholics of
Pennsylvania, were not deprived of his charitable aid. The sum
allotted to the American mission was one hundred pounds ster-
ling ; but as the principal was invested in French funds, his pre-
cious resource often in time of war foiled the poor Catholics of
Pennsylvania and their still poorer missionaries. The latter must
have been in great need, for they could not show their parishion-
ers the same touching hospitality then practised in Maryland.
There it was the custom for the Catholics who came fasting in
order to approach the sacraments, to take their meal with the
missionary; and the distance which they often had to go to
reach the nearest chapel showed the propriety of this patriarchal
custom. The Pennsylvania missions received aid from those of
Maryland, by virtue of instructions given by the Provincial of
England on the 2d of April, 1*759 : "The Superior, as a common

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lit

tercd the novitiate at Landspcrgre in 1743, and became a professed of the
four vows Ln 1761. He soiij^lit tlie Cliina mission, but to his disappointment
was transferred to the Eiifrlish province, and sent to Maryhnid in 1752. He
died at Pliiladelphia in 1781, and Fatlier Molyneux pronounced his funeral
oration, paying a striking homage to the virtue of tlie holy missionary.
Bisliop Bayley declares that he died in the odor of sanctity. Catholic Cliureh
in New York, p. 42.

* Luke Geislcr, born in (irennany m 1735, w;ia sent to Pennsylvania, and
died there, August 11, 1786.

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THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Father, must," says Father Corhie, " assist tho iieeily out of the
fiurphis of tlie more opulent settlements, putting all, both in Penn-
sylvania and Mainland, in tho vita communis, or the ordinary
>vay of living, and succor them, in their incidental losses and
burdens, with the bowels of true Christian and religious charity,"'*

Such was the precarious condition of Pennsylvaniji, when, in
1*784, Father John Carroll visited Philadelphia. He had re-
cently been appointed Superior of the clergy of the United States,
with power to administer confirmation, and he came to confer
that sacrament on the Catholics, as well as to ascertain the condi-
tion and wants of religion there. The sacrament of confirmation
had never before been conferred in any city in the land ; many a
person advanced in years now pressed forward to receive with
child and grandchild that sacrament whose vivifying strength
they had so often desired ; and the remembrance of that confirm-
ation has been perpetuated to our day.

The faithful were then scattered all over the State, rendering
the administration of the sacraments diflScult, and each mission-
ary had under his care a district about one hundred and thirty
miles long by thirty-five broad. Father Carroll was satisfied
with the piety and regularity of the Catholics of Philadelphia ;
he found them well instructed in their religion, but he saw
that the two churches, St. Maiy's and St. Joseph's,f were not suf-
ficient for the size of the congregations, and that the pastors
required, as they truly said, the aid of new priests. He also saw
that the prejudice against Catholics was declining; and Mr.
Campbell admits that this result was due in part to the stay at

* Campbell's Life and Times of Archbishop Carroll. U. S. Catholic Maga-
zine, iv. 255.

t The Abb6 Robin, a chaplain in BochambeauV' army, says : " The Roman
Catholics have two chapels in Philadelphia, governed by a Jesuit and a
German. They estimate the number of their flocks at eleven hundred or
twelve hundred."

IN THE UNITED STATES.

217

lan

Philadelphia of the representatives of France and Spain, as well
as to the presence of the staff of the French ai-my and fleet. The
chaplains of the army had during the war celebrated Mass in the
city churches; and Congress more than once attended to do
lionor to the French officers. Intelligent Protestants, disposed at
first from courtesy to respect the creed of their allies, learned at
the same time to tolerate it in their fellow-citizens. Catholics
had, moreover, displayed their patriotism in the Revolution. We
have shown it in Maryland in the illustrious family of Carroll.
At Philadelphia, Moylan, Fitzsimmons, men of eminence, gave
the army and Congress striking marks of their courage and
patriotism, as well as of their devotedness to the true faith. Com-
modore Bariy, the most celebrated naval commander of the Revo-
lution, was a sincere Catholic, who, at his death, made a consid-
erable bequest for pious uses. The ranks of the American army
contained many Irishmen — one of the Pennsylvania regiments
even got the name of the Irish Brigade — and when the Catholics
in a body addressed Washington, congratulating him on his
election to the Presidency, the General did them but justice when
in his reply he said : " I presume that your fellow-citizens will
not forget the patriotic part which you took in the accomplish-
ment of their Revolution and the establishment of their govern-
ment, or the important assistance which they received from a
nation in which the Roman Catholic faith is professed."*

At the close of the war a solemn Te Deum was chanted in St.
Joseph's Church, at the request of the Marquis de la Luzerne,
Minister Plenipotentiary of the Court of France. He invited to
it the Congress of the United States, the Assembly and State
Council of Pennsylvania, as well as the principal generals and
distinguished citizens. Washington was present, as well as La-
fayette, and the Abbe Bandale, Chaplain of the Embassy of His

* Sparks' Life and Writings of Washington, xii,
10

218

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

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Most Christian Majesty, addressed a most eloquent discourse to
the crowded audience.

" Who but He," exclaimed the sacred orator, " He in whose
hands are the hearts of men, could inspire the allied troops with
the friendship, the confidence, the tenderness of brothers ? How
is it that two nations once divided, jealous, inimical, and nursed
in reciprocal prejudices, are now become so closely united as to
form but one ? Worldlings would say it is the wisdom, the vir-
tue, and moderation of their chiefs ; it is a great national interest
which has performed this prodigy. They will say that to the
skill of generals, to the courage of the troops, to the activity of
the whole army, we must attribute this splendid success. Ah !
they are ignorant that the combining so many fortunate circum-
stances is an emanation from the all-perfect Mind : that courage,
that skill, that activity, bear the sacred impression of Him who is
divine. . . . Let us beseech the God of mercy to shed on the council
of the king of France, your ally, that spirit of wisdom, of justice and
of mercy, which has rendered his reign glorious. Let us likewise
entreat the God of wisdom to maintain in each of the States that
intelligence by which the United States are inspired. . . . Let us
offer Him pure hearts, unsullied by private hatred or public dis-
sension ; and let us, with one will and one voice, pour forth to
the Lord that hymn of praise by which Christians celebrate their
gratitude and his glory — Te Deum Laudamus^'^

We have already said it. Protestantism can lay no claim to
the honor of having established the toleration which Catholics
enjoyed in the United States after the Revolution. Policy and
necessity marked out the line of conduct which was adopted ;
and we are not alone in our opinion. An American historian'
says, " France, Catholic France, was now solicited ; she was
asked, and not in vain, to lend her armies to the cause of the

'*!

* The Catholics during the Kevolution.
May, 1855.

Catliolic Herald, Philadelphia,

IN THE UNITED STATES.

219

\hn to
Itliolics
Icy and

[opted ;
storiau
le was
I of the

ielpliia,

?-««

>"*

Revolution. Frencli troops landed at Boston, and amid the ridi-
cule of the English party, the selectmen of the capital of New
England followed a crucifix through the streets ! A French fleet
enters Narragansett Bay, and a law excluding Catholics from
civil rights is repealed ! French troops are at Philadelphia, and
Congress goes to Mass ! Necessity compelled this adaptation of
the outer appearance, and, perhaps, to some extent, calmed the
rampant prejudice of former days. With a Catholic ally, the
government could not denounce Catholicity. In the constitution
adopted, it washed its hands of the matter, and Congress refused
to assume, as one of its powers, a right to enter the sphere of re-
ligion. It was left to the several States to have any religion or
none but the general government, the only medium of commu-
nication with foreign States, could always profess its tolerance,
even though twelve of the thirteen should proscribe the faith of
Columbus."

In 1784, at the time of Father John Carroll's visit to Philadel-
phia, Pennsylvania probably numbered seven thousand Catholics,
and this is the estimate given by the Superior to Cardinal Anto-
nelli in the following year. In a letter dated July 22, 1788, and
addressed to some citizens of Philadelphia, Father Carroll ex-
pressed his opinion that an episcopal See would soon be required
for the United States, and that Philadelphia Avould be the favored
city : " I have every reason to believe that a bishop will be granted
to us in a few months, and it is more than probable that Phila-
delphia will be the episcopal See." This conjecture was probably
based on the fiict that Congress then held its sessions in that city,
and that Philadelphia was considered as the capital of the United
States ; but, as we have elsewhere seen, the clergy summoned to
deliberate on the choice of the episcopal city, gave the preference
to Baltimore. Himself created bishop in 1790, Dr. Carroll gov-
erned Philadelphia by a Vicar-general, Father Francis Anthony
Fleming, an able controvertist, who was succeeded in his import-

220

TUE CATHOLIC CHURCH

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ant post by Father Leonard Nealc. Father Fleming was one of
the first of the Catholic clergy to defend the Catholic cause when
assailed. In 1782, Mr. Miers Fisher, a member of the Assembly,
having remarked in a discussion that lotteries were like the Pope's
indulgences, "' forgiving and permitting sins to raise money," Mr.
Fk'un'ng called attention to it as unworthy of a man of standing ;
and the member, with a degree of courtesy rare in our days,
apologized for any unintentional offence which he might have
given the Catholic body ; but a new assailant having come for-
ward with the oft-repeated tale of the Pope's chancery. Father
Fleming replied by citing an equally authentic Protestant tariff",
in which the crime of " inventing any lies, however abominable
or atrocious, to blacken the Papists," is forgiven for the moderate
sum of one penny; and "setting fire to a popish church," two
pence ; which has since proved a higher rate than tlie Avitty
Father set down. The anonymous assailant renewed the attack,
and unable to produce any evidence in favor of the pretended
list, attempted to raise new issues, charging Catholics with idola-
try, persecution, etc. ; but Father Fleming held him to his asser-
tion, and after refuting that, disposed of his other charges,
completely silencing the accuser. To remove prejudice still
more, he published the letters in book form, for wider and perma-
nent circulation. In reply to the charge of persecution and in-
tolerance, he cited the penal laws of England, Ireland, and
Scotland, and adds : " But the greatest wonder of all remains to
be mentioned. Tell it not in Gath — publish it not in the streets
of Askalon — lest the bigots rejoice and the daughters of popery
triumph. At the close of the eighteenth century, among the en-
lightened, talented, and liberal Protestants of America, at the
very instant when the American soil was drinking up the best
blood of Catholics, shed in defence of her freedom ; when the
Gallic flag was flying in her ports and the Gallic soldiers fighting
her battles, then were constitutions framed in several States de-

v«*

IN THE UNITED STATES.

221

tlie

V<HI

grading those very C;itliulics, and excluding them from certain
ofllccs. O shame, where is thy bhish ! 0 gratitude ! if thou
hast a tear, let it fall to deplore this indelible stigma !"

Father Fleming and Father Gressel, his companion, gave a
still better proof of the claims of Catholicity in the yellow fever
which desolated Philadelphia in 1793.'* While that epidemic
was making its fearful ravages iu that city, these two Catholic
priests, as usual, braved the dise.'ise, and devoted themselves to the
care and consolation of the sick and dying, and both laid down
their lives in the discharge of their duties — true martyrs of charity.f

In 1790 the faithful at Philadelphia beheld the arrival among
them of Dr. Matthew Carr, a Hermit of St. Augustine, belonging
to one of the oldest religious orders in Christianity, and a com-
munity of which has for the last sixty-five years uninterruptedly
exercised the holy ministry in Pennsylvania. The Irish and
English Augustinians were erected into a distinct province, early
in the fifteenth century ; and other houses were very numerous
at the epoch of Henry VIII.'s religious rebellion. When the first
fury of the persecution had spent itself, the Augustinians who had

* From Wansey'a Journal of an Excursion to the United States of Ainor-
ioa, Salisbury, 179G, we find that of fourteen hundred and ninety-seven
burials in Philadelpiiia, from August 1st, 1792, to August 1st, 1793, one hun-
dred and seventy-six were in St. Mary's, twenty-nine in Holy Trinity, and
one hundred and ninety-four in I'ottersfleld; and tliatin the followinir year,
that of tlie fever, out of four thousand nine hundred and ninety-two, tliree
hundred and sixty-seven were buried in St. Mary's, sixty-six in Holy Trinity,
and fifteen hundred and ninety-eight in Pottersfield.

t Father Lawrence Louis Gressel was born at Kumansfelden, in Bavaria,
August 18, 1753. During the six years which he spent in Pliiladclpliia ho was
distinguished for piety, zeal, and mildness. Bishop Carroll had jiroposcd him
at Rome as his coadjutor, and he would doubtless have been aiipoiuted but
for his premature death, which took place in October, 1793. The Rev. Fran-
cis Anthony Fleming was apparently a Father of the Society of Jesus, but
his name does not appear in Oliver's collection, llis little work is entitled
" The Calumnies ofVerus; or. Catholics vindicated from certain old slan-
ders lately revived; in a series of letters, published in ditferont gazettes
at Philadelphia, collected and revised by Vcrax, with the addition of a pre-
face and a few notes. Philadelphia: Johnson & Justice, 1792."

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not left Tivland robuilt twelve houses on the ruins of their forinei
monasteries, and at the present time some forty of these reliijious
display their zeal in the first missions. In England the Wiiito
Friars hnvo not reappeared since the formation of t!io Ciiurch by
law established. Those in Ireland long sent their novices to the
convents of France and Italy, to receive the solid and extended
instruction which the misery of the times prevented their receiv-
ing at home ; thus Dr. Carr was brought up in the Augustinian
colleges of Paris and Bordeaux. lie was afterwards for several
years attached to a church of his order in Dublin, but in IVOO
came to Philadelphia, and built St. Augustine's 'Church, Avhich
was opened to worship and solemnly dedicated in 1800. Doctor
Carr was successively assisted in the ministry by the Augustinians,
Rossiter, Staunton, Larissey, and Hurley. He died in 1819, and
his successor, as Superior, was the Rev. Dr. Hurley, who died in
1837. Since then the Commissary-general in the United States
of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine has been the Very Rev.
P. E. Moriarty. Besides their church in Philadelphia, the Au-
gustinians serve the parish churches of St. Dennis at Havcrford,
St. Charles at Kellyville, St. Mary's at Chestnut Hill, and St.
Nicholas of Toleutino at Atlantic City, the last-named place being
in the diocese of Newark. They have also founded the monas-
tery and flourishing college of Villanova, where young men re-
ceive a finished and Catholic education.*

* \Yo are indebted for these details to tlic, kindness of tlie Very Kev.
Rather Moriarty, to wliom we express our acknowledgment. St. Augustine
founded the Order of Hermits, in Africa, in 388, and pave them a rule.
They were dispersed by the Vandals in 428, and some took refuge in Sar-
dinia, Naples, and Languedoc, where they founded monasteries. St.
Patrick, who had embraced the rule in Tuscany, before his consecration,
introduced it into Ireland, where Augustinian communities became very
numerous. Till 1256 they had no common centre, but at that time Pope
Alexander IV. united them all, and gave them a constitution. The first
General was Lanfranc Septala, and since then the Prior-general has always
resided at Rome. The Ursulines, Hospital Nuns, and many congrcgationB
of Sisters, also followed the rule of St. Augustine.

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223

At the outset of this century, the reimsylvaniii inisHion re-
ceived !i precious reinforcement in the person of the Rev. Ach)lphu8
Louis do Biirth, who was appointed to tht^ mission of Lancaster,
and tliero displayed the most admirahlc zeal.* In 1802 he had
as assistant the Kev. Micliael Ei^an, an Irish Franciscan of tho
8ti'ict Ohservanco, who had rccentlv arrived in tho United States,
and both, in their poverty as missionaries, found aid and assist-
ance in a generous Catholic, Mr. John Kisdal, whose hand was
over open in the cause of religion. A lett«'r from Father Egau
to IJishop Carroll, dated Lancaster, February 10, 1803, speaks of
this zealous gentleman, and Father Achillo CJuidce, in his bio-
graphical notice of Father De Cloriviore, says that that celebrated
Jesuit, while cure near 8t. Malo, in Urittany, from 1780 to 1790,
converted several Protestants to the Catholic religion, and among
others, Mr. John Risdal. "The return of this gentleman to the
true faith was a precious conquest for religion, to which he ren-
dered important service, especially in Lancaster and I'hiladelphia,
in the United Statos."f

Dy an apostolic rescript, of September 20, 1804. Father Michael
Egan had been authorized to found a province of his Order in tho
United States, but his project had no success. The young Fran-
ciscan was then appointed to St. ALary's Church, Philadelphia,
and there won the confidence of Bishop Carroll. The Bishop of
Baltimore beheld his administration embarrassed at Philadelphia
by the most painful difficulties. ITe had to rosisc the pretensions

* Adolpli Louis do Barth was born at Munster in 1774, studied at Beliay,
and entered the seminary of Strashiirg. lie was ecarccly ordained when the
Revolution drove him from France, and even from Munstcr, wlience ho re-
paired to America. ITc was at first employed in Maryland, but was poon
sent to Lancaster. lie was Vicar-general and administrator from 1814 to
182i">, then pastor of Conevvago, and in 1828, rector of St. John's, Baltimore.
In 1S;^3 liis infirmities and years compelled him to retire to Georgetowa
College, where he died piously, in October, 1844.

t Guidee, Vio du P. Joseph Varin et de quelquea autres Peres Jesuites.
Paris, 1854, p. 2oO.

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oHlu* tiiistccH of tlu! (icriiiaii Climrli of i\n> Holy Trinity, wiio
ciaiinod llio ri^lit of piitronufj;*', ntid wlio foiiicnti'd n .schism in
which they were cncoiirji^^cd by two interdicted priests. At hisf,
nfter five yeiirs' rebellion, the trustees submitted to the <'j»isc(>pal
authority in 1802. In the month of December, 1800, liishoj)
Carroll addressed Cardinal di Tietro, insisting on the necessity ot
founding four now Sees — Pliila<lel|»hia, Now York, Boston, and
]Jardstown. Tins VII. decreed this foundation by his brief oi
April 8, 1801), and api)ointed Father Michael Egan Bishop o
Philadelphia; but wo luivo already told by what a train of actci-
deut8 and misfortunes the bulls of institution were prevented frou\
reaching Baltimore till September, 1810.

CHAPTER XV.

DIOCEHK OF I'HII.AUKM'HIA (1810-18,34).

Th© Et. Rev. Mtohnel Ejrfin, first Msliop—Vpry Kov. Louis de Hurt)), ndminlstrator—
Rt llev. Henry Coiiwell, Bccond bisho|) — Schism of St. Mary's Cluirch — Very llev.
■Williotn Mathew.s, mlnilnlstnitor— Kt. Rev. Francis P. Kenrlok, condjutor, tlien tliird
bishop— IleU(,'ions condition of tiio diocese in 1S34.

The Rt. Rev. Michael Egan was consecrated October 28th,
1810, in St. Peter's Cathedi'al, Baltimoi-e. Archbishop Can-oil
ofBciated on that occasion, assisted by his coadjutor. Bishop
Neale, and Father William Vincent Harold, of the Order of St.
Dominic, preacliod tlie usual sermon. The new prelate had been
recommended for this See to the Congregation of the Propa-
ganda, and was selected by Ai'clibishop Cari'oll "as a truly pious
and learned religious, remarkable for his great humility, but
deficient, pcrliaps, in tirmness, and without gi'eat experience in the

IN THE UNITKD 8TATKS.

222

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direction of ufTfiirs." l-'or tht'so roasotis the natno of Father E^mii
wn.s only second on tho list sent to Canlinal di I'ietro, althoiij;li
ut tho close of the ' 'tier, tho prelate declared that he pret't-rretl
Iiim to tho others. And Archbishop Carroll expressed himself
still more categorically in a letter of June 17, 18U7, vvhero ho
said of Father K^an : "He is u nnm of ahout fifty, who seems
cndowe<l with all the (pialities to dis(;harg() with perfection tlirt
functions of the episcopacy, except that he lacks robust health,
greater experience, and a greater degree of rtrmiiess in his dispo-
sition. IIo is a learned, modest, humble priest, who maintains
the spirit of his Onler in his whole conduct."*

JJishop l'>gan governed his diocese with zeal and piety; but,
according to the i)rognostic of Archbishop Carroll, he was deti-
cient in necessary firmness, as lie showed in a very serious con-
troversy with the trustees of St. Mary's Church, his cathedral.
These trustees thus })reluded the deplorable schism which, at a
later date, was to desolate the diocese. The ground on which
this church is built had been granted to Father Robert Harding,
in 17G3, under the express condition of erecting there a cluipel,
>vhich he, in fact, did. The church was successively transferred
l)y will from Father Harding to \\n\ Kev. John Lewis, and by the
latter to B'ather Molyneux, and finally to Father F'rancis Nenle.
At last, by an Act of tho Legislature of Pennsylvania (passed
Sept. 13, 1788), a body of trustees was recognized as a body
politic, and incorporated to administer the finances of the church.

In 1810 it became necessary to enlarge the edifice, and these
new erections gave rise to conflicts of authority with the bislnjp,
at the same time that the trustees set up claims to be consulted
in the choice of their pastors, and unfortunately. Father Harold
and his uncle arrayed themselves in a measure against the bishoji.
This was the more to be regretted, as the younger Harold,

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* Archives of the Archbishop of Biillimore.
10*

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though a man of eminent quahties and i^trikm^^ defects, ^va.s full
of real eloquence and virtue, but marred his transcendent merit
by the asperity of his temper.

In spile of these troubles, Nvliidi shortened his days. Bishop
Egan took a lively interest in the foundation of a colony of the
Sisters of Charity at Philadelphia, to take care of an orphan
asylum. In 1797 a charitable association had been ovgunized in
the city to harbor orphans whose parents had been carried off by
the yellow fever. These poor children were confided to a pious
lady, and lodged in a house near the Church of the Holy Trinity ;
but, from the very first, resources were precarious, and the asylum
was maintained only by the persevering eftbrts of Father Michael
Hurley, pastor of St. Augustine's in 1807, and by the generous aid
of a layman, Mr. Cornelius Thiers. It needed a religious institute
to undei'take the direction of this asylum, and the trustees of the
Holy Trinity resolved, in 1814, to ask Sisters of Charity fi'om
Enmietsburg. It was the first colony sent by ^Mother Set on from
her rising community, and the holy foundress welcomed this
opening with joy. Three Sisters were appointed, willi Sister Rose
AVhite as Superioi',* and arrived at Philadelphia, September 29,
1814. They took possession of the asylum, \\hich contained
thirteen children, in rags, groaning under the weight of a debt of
four thousand dollars. Their early eflbrts were crossed by trials,
but three years aftci' they had paid the debt, and the orjdian
asylum now contains a hundred children, while the boys, to the
number of one hundred and six, occupy another asylum, under
the charge of the Sisters of St. Joseph.

* Sister Rose White was a pious widow, born in Maryland, in 1784, and
was one of tlie first to join Mother Seton to found in America tlie Order of
Sisters of Cliarity. On the death of tlic foundress, Sister Rose was elected
Superior general, and was re-elected by her Society as often a.s the constitu-
tion permitted, thus receiving a proof of their confidence in lier wisdom,
virtue, and aptitude for government. She died in Maryland, July iiStli,
1841.

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«f^*

Bishop Egan did not live long enough to see his diocese
adorned by the presence of the Sisters of Charity. He expired
on the 22d of July, 1814, and on his death, the Very Rev. Louis
de Barth was appointed administrator of the diocese. In the
month of January, 1815, Archbishop Carroll wrote to Rome to
ask that the vacancy should be filled, and renewed his request in
the month of July. The Rev. Ambrose Marechal was nominated
Bishop of Philadelphia, but he refused the See, and the Court of
Rome did not insist, because it wished to call him then to the
more important post of Coadjutor of Baltimore.

The Rev. John Baptist David, afterwards Coadjutor of Louis-
ville, was also proposed at Rome for the See of Philadelphia, but
he hastened to write to the Propaganda, to beg them not to think
of him. The ability with which the Rev. Mr. De Barth adminis-
tered the diocese, next pointed him out for the episcopacy ; but
such an honor disconcerted his modesty ; he twice successively
refused the See, and once sent back to Rome the bulls of in-
vestiture. Every one shrunk from a burden i-eudered particularly
heavy by the spirit of independence and revolt which fermented
among the bodies of trustees. At last, in 1830, the Very Rev.
Henry Conwell, Vicar-general of the diocese of Armagh, in Ireland,
accepted the post, ignorant, doubtless, of its many difficulties.
He was consecrated in London, by Bishop Poynter. He was
then seventy-three years old, and immediately embarked for the
United States, where the bitterest trials and cares awaited him.
The long schism of St. Mary's Chu.'ch, Philadelphia, has been a
long scandal to religion, but it is our duty to relate briefly the
sad story, in order to serve as a lesson to imprudent laymen, who
believe that they show zeal in exceeding their duty and invading
that of the clergy and episcopate.

In 1818 or 1819, William Hogan, a young priest of inferior
education but good natural parts, who had been dismissed from
Maynooth for a breach of discipline, left the diocese of Limerick

228

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

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and emij.'irkod for New York. He was first employe d en the
ministry at Albany, but left that city, against the wish of Dr. Con-
nolly, then Bishop of New York, and was temporarily installed by
the Rev. Mr. De 13arth, administrator of the diocese of Philadelphia,
as temporary pastor at St. Mary's. At the close of the year 1820,
Bishop Couwell took possession of his See, and having had reason
to suspect Mr. Ilogan's conduct in Ireland, on his passage, at
Albany and Philadelphia, he withdrew his faculties on the 20th
of December, 1820. Hogan continued to officiate at St. Mary's,
in spite of the censures of his bishop, and the refusal of the
Archbishoj) of Baltimore to entertain his appeal. Bishop Con-
well accordingly excommunicated llogan on the 11th of Febru-
aiy, 1821, and in the course of the spring, appointed as pastor,
the Rev. James Cummiskey, associating with him the Rev.
Thomas Hayden, whom he had ordained on the 1st of May.
The bishop and his clei'gy occupied the church for some months,
though very much annoyed by Hogan and his party, who threat-
ened to take possession of St. Mary's, and finally did so in the
summer of 1821.

In August, Bishop England, of Charleston, stopped in Phila-
delphia on his way to New York, and though he did not wait on
Bishop Conwell, was soon found to be much prejudiced against
the latter. While at New York he was visited by Hogan, and
wrote to Bishop Conwell, offering his mediation ; and so deluded
was he by the rebellious priest and his party, that he concluded
his letter by saying : " I pledge myself to you, and I would not
do so thoughtlessly, that if you grant what I ask, you will uphold
and preserve religion ; but should you refuse it, you will be the
cause of its destruction."

Bishop Conwell by no means approved the steps taken by the
Bishop of Charleston, and peremptorily declined his mediation.
However, when Bishop England, in returning to his See, stopped
at Philadelphia in October, the bishop was induced to yield to

IN THE UNITED STATES.

229

M-0

his request ; and Bishop Englaud, having promised Mr. Hogan a
mission in his own diocese, obtained powers from Bishop Conwell
to absolve him on a proper submission. Hogan readily promised
all that was required, and Bishop England absolved him on the
18th of October, 1821 ; but the very next day, Hogan, hearken-
ing to the fatal advice of the trustees, retracted, again said Mass
at St. Mary's, and resumed his functions as pastor. Bishop Eng-
land, who had believed so inqjlicitly in Hogan's good faith, saw
all his plans thus defeated, and so far from being able to carry
out his promise, was in turn obliged to re-excommunicate the
wretched Hogan.

This was not the only effort to restore peace. Several friends
of the bishop, admirers of the Dominican Father, William V.
Harold, once stationed at Philadelphia, prevailed upon Bishop
Conwell *o invite him to return, fully persuaded that Hogan would
be at once abandoned. Father Harold was then Prior of a house
of his Order in Lisbon, and joyfully accepted the offer of a pastor-
ship of a church to which he was so much attached as St. Mary's,
but informed the bishop that it would be necessary for the latter
to write to Rome in order to obtain the acceptance of his resigna-
tion as Prior. Meanwhile, Bishop Conwell, to his great chagrin,
learned that Father Harold and his uncle, Father William Harold,
Lad been the leaders of the opposition to his predecessor, and
that the uncle had first stirred up the trustees of St. Mary's to
revolt against their bishop, actually circulating anonymous printed
appeals. Bishop Conwell now retracted the invitation to the
nephew, but Father William V. Harold, having resigned his
priorship, was already on his way, and on the 2d of December,
1821, landed in Philadelphia, to die great joy of all his friends.
The Bishop received him coldly, but installed him at St. Joseph's,
and made him his secretary. Father Harold did not, however,
succeed at all iri weaning the schismatics from Hogan.

The majority of the Catholics were far from approving the con-

230

THE CATHOLIC CIIURCFI

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duct of the truslocs. Most of t.liom now deserted the interdicted
ehurcli, and followed the bishop, wlio had witlidrawn to St. Jo-
seph's. The two parlies became more and more exasperated ;
the orthodox lioped to defeat the schismatics by electing a new
Hoard of Trustees, but those in office managed to secure a re-
election by nndtjplying the number of seats in the church, and
letting them to their creatures. Now, as every male occupant of
a vseat was an elector, whether Jew or infidel, the majority was
thus secured for the revolt. The election took place in the (;hurch
on Easter I'uesday, 1822, and led to sad results : the disoider was
friolitful ; blood was shed, and the schismatics triumphed, pro-
se rxing Ilogan as pastor.

At the close of the same year, the Archbishop of Tialtimore
returned from Rome to the United States, bringing a l^apal brief
of August 2, 1 822, which solemnly condemned the schismatics of
St. Mary's. Mr. Ilogan promised to submit, and a long corre-
spondence ensued bet\yeen him and the lie v. William V. llai'old,
the bishop's secretary. In this, bad faith is everywhere evident
in Hogan's language. Nevertheless, he made his sid:>mission on
tli(^ 10th of December, 1822, and the same day received from
jiishop Conwell his exeat and the removal of the censures in-
curred; but on the 14th of the same month, the unhappy ])riest,
circumvented by the trustees, relapsed into his error ; he objected
that the authenticity of the rontifical brief had not been shown
and continued to officiate and pre:ich at St Mary's. The guilty
priest published the most violent pamphlets against his diocesan
and against Bishop England, whom he sought to compromise ;
but he soon tired of functions which he rebelliously exercised,
and which were a check to his passions. lie left Philadelphia,
went south, married, re-married, became a custom-house officer at
Boston, went into the pay of the bitterest enemies of Catholicity,
ever disposed to foment scandal ; and successively published
against tlie Church three infan]ous books, recently reprinted at

'Miffi:

BmiMi

IN THE UNITED STATES.

231

]Lirtford to stiinuliito the Know-Notliiiig movement.* At lasf,
Avhilo the tutor of Leahy, a |>i'eteii(U!<l Trappist monk, and an ob-
scene reviler of Catliolic truth, he died of the palsy in 1851 or
1852, without giving any sign of repentance — a frightful example
of the pernicious influence of the trustee system which Protes-
tantism tries to force on the Catliolics. Ilogau had committed
faults at first ; but he repoate<-lly showed repentance and a wish
to submit. The perfidious counsels of I'cvolted laymen, tlio false
glory of being loved and flattered by a part of his parishioners,
retained liim in sin, and hurried him on from lapse to lapse ; and
the unwortliy trustees of St. Mary's remain responsible before God
for no small part of the crimes of the unhappy priest, whom they
seduced fi'om the path of duty.

The trustees, deprived of their chosen pastor, wislied to re-
place him worthily, and applied at first to the celebrated Angelo
Tnglesi, whose adventures will figure in another part of this his-
tory ; but the lax manners of this gentleman alarmed even the
unscrupulous consciences of the schismatics of St. Mary's, and
they named in his place the Rev. Thatldeus O'Mcally, of the dio-
cese of Limerick. This clergyman rejected all proposals made
by Bishop Conwell, and set out for Rome with the accusations
of the trustees against the Rishop ; but he listened to th( voice
of conscience, and submitting at Rome, on the 2oth of July, J ^25,
retired to a convent to do penance for his fault. Meanwhile,
the Bishop of Philadelphia, having drunk the cup of bitterness,
weakened by six years' strife, insult, and contempt, at last agreed
to an arrangement in wliich he thought he guaranteed the im-
prescriptible rights of the Church. On the 9th of October,
1826, a treaty of peace was signed between Bishop Conwell and
the trustees, by tlie fourth article of which the bishop acknowl-

* Popery as it Was and Is : by William Ilogaii. Hartford : Andrus. Nun-
neries and Auricular Confession: by William Ilogan. Hartford : Andrus.

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edges in tlie latter a riglit to recommend suitable persons to be
pastors of St. Mary's, on tlie following conditions :

The bishop shall name the priests and notify the trustees. If
the latter do not find them to be properly qualified to be pastor
or assistant, they shall present their objections to the bishop. If
the bishop persists, he shall name a committee of three ecclesi-
astics, of which he shall form one, to deliberate with a commit-
tee of three trustees ; and the vote of this committee shall be
respected by the bishop. If they are equally divided, two arbi-
trators shall be chosen, and their vote shall decide.

In spite of the satisfaction which this treaty gave their pre-
tensions, the trustees followed it up by a protest which they pre-
sented to the bishop, and which the latter accepted. By this,
they declared that they meant in no respect to abandon their
nghts, and that they will claim at Rome, that in future no bishop
shall be named without the recommendation and approbation of
the Catholic clergy of the diocese.

By a letter of October 11, 1826, Bishop Conwell proclaimed
an amnesty, raised the interdict on the church, and then, with
the concurrence of the trustees, appointed as pastors the Rev.
William V. Harold and the Rev. Thomas Ilayden. But this
fatal compromise was a bar to the real good of St. Mary's. Be-
fore long the Rev. Father Harold, the Dominican, during twenty
years esteemed for his zeal and eloquence, came into collision
with the bishop in regard to it, and by his impetuous character
was hurried into open disrespect, oven into contempt, for Bishop
Conwell. Meanwhile, the Propaganda, at the tidings of a de-
plorable compromise that left revolt triumphant, had seriously
taken the matter up, and in a general assembly of cardinals, on
the 30th of April, 182*7, declared the agreement of October 9th
null and void, as an infringement on the ecclesiastical authority.
The bishop submitted to the dejree, in which it was solemnly
said, that " Peter liad spoken by the mouth of Leo ;" and by a

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IN THE UNITED STATES.

233

pastoral of July 22, 1827, he proclaimed the aorogation of the
agreement as condemned. But the courageous self-denial of th«i
prelate was not imitated at St. Mary's, where the zealous Rev.
Thomas Ilayden, who had reluctantly accepted the post, had
been, to his great joy, succeeded by the Dominican, Father
Ryan. To put an end to the scandals, Cardinal Capellari, on
the 9th of March, 1828, wrote to the Rev. William Mathews,
pastor in Washington, acqu' "nting him with a decision which
named him Administrator oi the diocese of Philadelphia, and
requesting him to transmit to Bishop Conwell a letter which in-
vited him to Rome, and letters from the Visitor-general of the
Dominicans to Fathers Harold and Ryan, ordering them to leave
Philadelphia and proceed to a convent of their order in Ohio.

The unfortunate Bishop of Philadelphia immediately set out
for Rome, and remained there several months ; but suddenly,
feai'ing that he might not be permitted to return to his diocese,
he precipitately left the Eternal City, and returned to America.
However, the United States Consul at Rome wrote, on the 8th
of May, 1829, to the Secretary of State at Washington, that his
fear was groundless, that the Propaganda had offered no oppo-
sition to Bishop Conwell's departure, and that his passports had
been signed without any hesitation.* The Rev. William Mathews
preserved the post of Apostolic Administrator till 1830 ;f but he
would not consent any longer to bear so heavy a burden, and at

* Bishop England's AVorks, v. 229.

t The Kcv. WilHam Mathews, born in Charles county, Maryland, in 1770,
made liis classic; i course at St. Omers, and his divinity at the Sulpitiaa
Seminary, Baltimore. Ordained March, 1800. Ho was tlie seventli eceleei-
astic promoted to tlie priestliood in the United States, and tlie first native
ordained in the country. He died on tiio 30th April, 1854, universally
revered as a patriarch, having filled the priesthood fifty-four years, and
been pastor of St. Patrick's in Washington for over half a century. His
temporary functions as Administrator of the diocese of Philadelphia drew
him for a time from his church, but he returned to it as soon as he was
able to resign the diocese into the hands of Bishop Kcnrick,

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the sucfgestion of the Council of Baltimore, in 1829, with the con-
sent of liishop Conwell, the Right Rev. Fi'ancis Patrick Kenrick
was elected by the Holy See Coadjutor of Philadeli)hia, with
powers of administrator. The consecration of this prelate took
place at liardstowu in June, 1820, and was celebrated by Bishop
Flaget.

The two Dominican Fathers, stationed at St. Mary's, did not
display the same obedience as their prelate. But of all con-
duct open to them, they took what was most eccentric and ab-
surd. This was to complain to the government, at Washington,
and ask its protection against the Pope, accusing the Court of
Rome with violating their individual liberty as American citi-
zens, by ordering them to go to Cincinnati, when their taste in-
duced them to prefer Philadelphia as a residence. Henry Clay,
then Secretary of State, was simple enougli to listen to the com-
plaints of the Fathers, and by his letter of July 9, 1828, instruct-
ed the American minister at Paris to see the Nuncio and seek
justice for his proteges. The polite reply of the pontifical envoy
probably convinced Clay that he had plunged into an element
not his own, for he immcdi itely wrote to the minister at Paris
to drop the matter.

On their side, the two Fathiu-s, doubtless, saw that if they chose
to throw off the character of Religious and Catholics, the Order
would have no power over them, and they might in liberty enjoy
all civil and political rights as American citizens ; but that, as
long as they remained Dominicans, they were bound in con-
science to submit to their superiors and the Holy See. In 1829,
they returned separately to Ireland, where Father John Ryan
died some years since, having repaired passing errors of judg-
ment by a long and exemplary career. Father Harold, after be-
ing Provincial of his Order in Ireland, and long revered as a
lioly and zealous priest, has expired while this work is passing
through the press.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

235

The grout prudence, niid the fir)Ti et patornal deterinination
of Bishop IConrick, restored peace to St. Mary's. Difficulties
again arose in 1831 ; and this is no wonder, for the very vice of
American li'gishition is by the trustee system forced into the
affairs of the Church. They say in France, that the republican
form of government would bo a very good one for angels. We
may say the same of trusteeism : as it exists in the United
States, it would be the best temporal administration for saints.
Unfortunately, hov/ever, all the laity are not saints, as we see in
the many schisms the system has caused, and especially that of
St. Ma'-y's, the most celebrated and scandalous of all. The
Right Kev. Henry Conwell lived in retirement at Philadelphia
till April 21, 1842, when he expired, at the age of ninety -four.
Overwhelmed with infirmities and struck with blindness, the
prelate supported with courageous resignation the fearful burden
of a long old age, in the midst of the difficulties which have as-
sailed him. Bishop England says : " The bishop has been the
greatest sufterer in his feelings, in his income, and under God,
he may thank his virtue alone that he has not been in his char-
acter. That, however, has been but burnished in the collision :
were he a hypocrite, the thin washing would have long since
been rubbed away, for, indeed, the applications have been roughly
used. Wliat do the Catholics of Philadelphia desire, better than
a bishop whose character will outlive the test of four years' as-
sailing such as he has met with, and whose firmness for the pres-
ervation of principle has been tested as his has been ? These
arc quaUties not to be every day or easily found."*

By the death of Bishop Conwell the Kt. Rev. Dr. Kenrick be-
came titular bishop of the diocese of which ho had been for
upwards of twelve years the administrator. This prelate, now at

* Bishop England's Works, v. 108. Our account of the schism is basec^.
chiefly on tlie voluminous documents published in this volume, and extend-
ing from page 109 to 232.

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TilK CATHOLIC CHURCH

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tlio he.'id of the American hierarchy, was boru in Dublin, on the
3d of December, 1797, and studied divinity at Home. Having
devoted himself to the American missions in 1821, the Rev. Mr.
Kenrick wjis first employed in Kentucky, and won the esteem
and regard of Bishop Flaget. Thiit patiiarch of the West often
speaks in his (correspondence of the young Irish priest, describing
him "as remarkable for his piety, extensive acquirements, the
quickness of his mind, and the natural eloquence with which ho
expressed himself." The jubilee which was celebrated in Ken-
tucky in 182G and 1827, gave a wide field to the zeal and talents
of Mr. Kenrick. He attended Uishop Flaget in the pastoral visi-
tation of his vast diocese, everywhere preaching with success in
edification and conversions; and at Bardstown he gave public
conferences on religion, answering the objections of Protestant
ministers, and often eft'ectually silencing them. Bishop Flaget's
attachment to his young friend was so great that the ucm's of the
Rev. Mr. Kenrick's nomination as Coadjutor of Philadelphia
caused the venerable bishop deep grief, and the separation was
extremely painful to both. Bishop Flaget received the bulls from
Rome on the 1st of May, 1830, but it was not till twenty-foiu*
hours after that he had the courage to hand them to Mr. Kenrick,
so difficult had it been for him to resign himself to the loss of
one of the most brilliant ornaments of the clergy of his diocese.
This tender aflfection of Bishop Flaget is too honorable to the
learned Bishop of Philadelphia for us to omit it here.

Of this period of Bishop Kenrick's life we find an incident
worth noting, in a work by an Italian missionary.

The consecration of Bishop Kenrick was performed in the
cathedral of St. Joseph, Bardstown, on Trinity Sunday, the 6th
of June, by the venerable Bishop of that See, assisted by the
aged Bishop of Philadelphia, and by his own coadjutor, the
Bishop of Mauricastro in 2Jctrtibus. The Bishop of Cincinnati
was in the sanctuary with ;i large body of clergy. Bishop Eng-

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IN TIIK UNITED STATES.

237

livncl preaclied ou the occasion with his wonted eloquence ; nnj
afterwards, during two weeks, visited several parts of the diocese,
delighting all by his masterly vindications of the (Catholic faith.
His last discourse in Kentucky was pronounced at Louisville, at
the laying of the corner-stone of a new church. Tlie newly-or-
dained prelate proceedcid, witli the Bishop of Philadelphia, to
that city, and entered on tlie administration of tlie diocese, which
had been intrusted to him by the Holy See.*

In the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith wo find a letter
of Bishop Kenrick, dated January 4, 1834, and it contains inter-
esting details as to the state of religion in the diocese. The pre-
late then estimated the Catholic population of his diocese at one
liundred thousand, chiefly Germans and Iiish. " But the French,"
lie added, " arc also numerous, especinlly at Philadelphia." The
presence of thi-ee French priests — Messrs. Fouthouze and Guth,
and Father Dubuisson, of the Society of Jesus — gave them every
opportunity of preaching their religion. One of these often
preached in their language at the German church of St. Mary,
and sometimes also at St. Mary's, the cathedral. In the interior
of Pennsylvania French families are found in several plaees.f A
notice on St. Mary's Church also says, that at the beginning of
the century, " among the families who pretty regularly attended
the church, were several French families of rank and even dis-
tinction ; and although death and the instability of human aifairs
have diminished their numbers, and removed most of them, the
descendants of some of these families are still parishioners of St.
Mary's."

In 1834, Philadelphia contained twenty- five thousand Catho«
lies and five churches, each attended by two priests. At Easter,
1833, the Jesuits had resumed possession of St. Joseph's Church,

* Memorie istoriche ed edificante di un missionario apostolico dell ordiuo
dei prodicatori. Milano, 1844.
t Annales do lu Propagation de laFoi, viii. 212-220.

238

THE CATUOLIC CIIUUCII

the old ro.sidcnoo of the first niiKsionmicK of tlio Society of Penn-
sylvania, and the previous year tlio Ivov. John Hughos luul built
St. John's ('hurch, aided l)y the generosity of the public, and
especially that of a French gentleman, Mr. M. A. Krenaye, who
pledged his property to encourage the contractors and prevent
the work from stoj^ping.* In the interior of the diocoso the
faithful were less provided with religious aid, in consequence of
the small number of missionaries, and the only parishes possess-
ing fixed pastors who cehdtrated Mass every Sunday, were Pitta-
burg, Conewago, Lorctto, Manayunk, and Wilmington. Among
the missions, some enjoyed the presence of the pastors three times
a month, such as Haycock, Pottsville, Lancaster, Bedford, and
Chambersburg ; others, only once a fortnight ; others again,
but once a month ; and some more rarely still, as the wants of
other missions allowed the priests time to visit them. Browns-
ville, Carbondale, Silver Lake, New Castle, Butler, were in this
situation, although churches were built in all. "The missiona-
ries," wrote ]3ishop Kem-ick, " are charged with the care of two,
three, or four missions, or even more, often at considerable dis-
tances from each other. Some of these missions need the gift of
tongues and a health of iron. Nine nations have supplied our
missionaries, so that there is more diversity among them than
among the faithful even, as regards language. Four of the priests
are French, three Germans, two Belgians, and twenty-one Irish.
Eussia, Livonia, Portugal, and England have each gi\ en one mis-
sionary to Pennsylvania. As to Americans born, we count only

* Mr. M. A. Frenayo, born in St. Domingo, and educated in France, re-
turned to his native isle witli General Le Cicrc's expedition, and lie endeav-
ored to remain after tlie departure of that army. Seized by the negroes, lie
escaped death almost miraculously, and took refuge first in Jamaica and
next in the United States. Having realized an honorable fortiino in trade,
he bestowed it on the diocese of riiiladeli'liia, an. I tor the last twenty years
devoted himself to works of charity and the affairs of the Church. May his
noble old age be long prolonged for the good of religion.

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IN THE UNITED STATES.

239

threo

>lovc<l ill tlui (li

and two at Einmotsbui

now employed in tho, dioceso, ana two at i^nnie
The number would increase if we liad a suilablo seminary to re-
ceive tho young men who desire to devote themselves to the holy
ministry, and this is the object of my most sincere desire.

"At Conevvago, in tho part of Pennsylvania which borders on
Maryland, tho Fathers of tho Society of Jcvsus have one establish-
ment amid a considerable Catholic population. The zeal of these
Fathers extends to tho neighboring population, and they have
threo churclies besides that where they reside, and which was
built in 1787. Nearly twelve hundred were confirmed in these
threo churches at my last visit.

" Tho church of Gosheidioppen also belongs to tho Jesuits, and
must have been built in 1765. Tho Catholic population of the
neighborhood is very numerous, and almost all of German origin;
henco the present generation, although American born, does not
generally speak English. The spirit of faith and piety has been
preserved and maintained till now by tho zeal of Father Corvin
(Krolcowski), a Livonian Jesuit."* Such was the state of religion
in tho diocese of rhiladelphia in 1834, and we are now to see
what progi'oss the Church, in spit« of all its trials, has made in
the last twenty years.

* Father Boniface Co-vin vas present nt tho synod in Philadclpliia in
1832, and is descrlbi^l !: > the Rev. Mr. Hayden aa being then a venerable
old man, and second on the list of priests that signed — the Rev. Pntriok
Kenny being the flr.n " juxta ordinationis suae tempus." He died the 11th
of October, 1837, aged sixty years.

11:
pi

lln

!||:

1'4 li

tiit-^i

240

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

CHAPTER XVI.

DIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA (1838-1844).

Commencement and progress of the anti-Gattaollo agitation— Yarions manoeuTres of the
fonatics— The Native party— The Philadelphia riots.

Bishop Kenrick's episcopate was not distinguished only by
the admirable development given in his diocese in Catholic insti-
tutions, by the construction of numerous churches, and the re-
markable increase of the clergy; the celebrated prelate had
also to exercise his zeal in rebuilding the shrines which a misled
people laid in ashes, and in preaching patience and religion to his
flock, while he endeavored to protect them against the fanaticism
of the vile multitude.

The anti-Catholic agitation breaks out periodically in the
United States, and the symptoms of the malady are the same
from the colonial times down to our own. It is a sort of inter-
mittent fever, which has its deep-seated principle in the hereditary
hatred transmitted for three centuries to Protestant generations,
and inoculated by the incendiary writings of the first deformers.
At certain intervals, political quackery succeeds in temporarily
breaking the fever, and the good disposition given by Providence
to nations helps these intervals of p^ ag calm. Man cannot be
kept in a state of constant fury against his fellow-man, especially
when the latter is inoffensive and innocent, and when the passions
are no longer excited by the leaders of the movement, natural be-
nevolence resumes its course. There are moments when apostles
of error stop from weariness, and others, when political reasons
make it prudent to wheedle Catholics by presenting toleration as

IN THE UNITED STATES.

211

a real reality and not a sham. And lastly, God wishes to give
liis Church some days of repose amid the trials of the crucible, in
which the faithful are purified.

The ministers of the popular sects of Protestantism — the Pres-
byterians, Methodists, and Baptists — cannot bear to see their
flocks ravaged by infidelity. Interest and self-love induce them
to make every eftbrt to retain around their pulpits the thousands
in whom unbridled examination and unguided judgment has de-
stroyed faith, and as the exposition of doctrine has no longer any
attraction for their heresy, they hope to keep them Protestants
by filling them with a hatred of Catholicity, The false pastors
then put their imagination on the rack to vary their calumnies
against our dogmas, and season them to the public taste. The
public mind must be always kept in suspense by dangling in its
eyes the bugbear of Romanism, ready to glut itself with the blood
of honest Protestants. When a fact cannot be travestied or suo-
cessfully misrepresented, they invent without the slightest scruple
or fear of public exposure, a fact which in itself is a strange com-
mentary on a public community. This deplorable system can
be compared only to the manoeuvres of a Merry Andrew, an-
nouncing that he will exhibit in his tent a series of prodigies out-
doing each other in the marvellous; or else to the course of
famous novelists, stimulating the curiosity of their readers by
complications of intrigue and crime, on which they then weave
the web of mystery.

The perio<l from 1834 to 1844 beheld this anti-Cathohc agita-
tion extend through several dioceses, in a most frightful manner,
and at last result in Philadelphia in civil war. The leaders began
by reviving the stale calumnies as to the intolerance of CathoUcs,
and the game opened in a most curious way. The English ver-
sion of the New Testament used by Catholics was made originally
at the English college of Rheims, and first printed in 1582.
Although the text has undergone vaiious recensions, and the

242

THE CATHOLIC CHURCfit

WV: ^

notes of the Rhemish tlieologians have long been omitted and re
placed by those of Bishop Challouer, the Testament still bears the
name of the Rhemish Testament, as the whole sacred volume
does the title of Douay Bible. In this, the mere result of habit,
the leaders of the anti-Catholic movement thought that they had
discovered a- fijreat secret. Imagining, in their delusion, that the
old Rhemish Testament was still circulating among the Catholic
clergy, but carefully withheld from the laity, they resolved to re-
print it, and early in 1 834 issued their edition of the Rhemish
Testament, a reprint of that of 1582, with the original notes,
described in the " introductory address" as " replete with impiety,
irreligion, and the most fiery persecution." This address bears
the endorsement of one hundred and thirty Protestant clergy-
men, many of them from Princeton, New Brunswick, and Yale ;
and its introductory matter will ever remain a monument of the
ignorance which then prevailed as to bibliography and ecclesias-
tical history,. To give all their blunders would be an endless
task ; but to such as have never seen the curious volume, it may
be suflBcient to state that in their wisdom they make the college
of Rheims a Jesuit house, when it was the very centre of the
English secular clergy, actually in warm controversy with the
Jesuits. They say that the Roman priests have denied the value
of the Douay and Rheims translation. They admit their igno-
rance of even the names of the translators ; they condemn them
(believe it, ye men of classic learning) for not translating tunic
by coat, and sandals by shoes/ They charge that expurgated
editions only have been allowed to appear since 1816, ignorant
of the fact that tv/o Catholic editions, at least, were printed in
this country before that date. Alas for Princeton, New Bruns-
wick, and Yale ! This eflfort of one hundred and thirty minis-
ters was a complete failure. They had attempted too much, and
now turned with greater zest to a subject more pleasant and less
knotty — the old women's tales of convents, the pseudo horrors

IN THE UNITED STATES.

243

committed tliere, the ideal tortures to whicli the nuns are sub-
ject'^d when they endeavor to escape. For several months minis-
ters }elled from their pulpits these pretended descriptions of the
licentiousness of Catholic institutions. New England was the
propitious soil, and on the 11th of August, 1834, the popular
emotion reached a proper height. The mob of Boston and its
suburbs rushed upon the Ursuhne Convent of Mount Benedict,
and destroyed it from top to bottom by fire and pillage, ransack-
ing even the graves of the dead. The court of pretended justice
might acquit the rioters ; the Legislature of Massachusetts might
refuse to alloys any indemnity for the destruction it had permit-
ted ; but a committee of inquiry, formed by Protestant citizens,
undertook a minute investigation to appreciate the truth of the
accusations against the Ursulines. Their repoii entirely excul-
pated the ; '"'^""uted nuns, and showed the makers of discord that
they must > ■ :<, lew arms against Catholicity.

They sought then to justify their course, and an anonymous
committee published " Six Months in a Convent," a narrative of
pretended enormities; the Lady Superior answered it trium-
phantly, and the wits of Boston in travesties held up the reve-
rend forgers to the public ridicule. They attempted indeed in
a supplement to regain the lost ground, but it was too late.*

Soon after these sad scenes, the Rev. Lyman Beecher, who had
urged the people of Boston to incendiarism and pillage,f visited

mmis-
h, and
id less
Lorrors

* Seo "Six Months in a Convent," by Rebecca Theresa Ecod. Boston,
1835. It was published to operate on the public mind at the time of the trial
of the rioters, in order to prejudice the public against the nuns, and 35,000
copies were sold in a few days.

The Superior's answer is entitled "An Answer to Six Months in a Con-
<^ent," by the Lady Superior. Boston, 1855.

See also " Chronicles of Mount Benedict," and " Six Months in a House
of Correction." Boston, Mussey, 1835. An admirable satire ; and finally
"Supplement to Six Months in a Convent," by the Committee of Publica-
tion. Boston, Eussell, 1885.

^ In proof of this see "Protestant Jesuitism."

244

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

it: -fTl ,. :

llie Western States, and there published a work in which he
represents the CathoHcs as leagued witli the despots of Europe to
destroy the hberties of America. Morse, whose name will be
ever associated with th telegraph, espoused the same idea with
all the fury of a partisan, and in his "Brutus, or a Foreign Con-
spiracy against the Liberties of the United States," sought to
excite a civil war.* But even this failed to excite the people.
Something new was needed to increase the religious irritation.
Then three ministers, the Eev. Messrs. Bourne, W. C. Brov.'nlee,
and J. T. Slocum, took under their protection a prostitute of
Montreal, whom they transformed into a nun escaped from the
Hotel Dieu, or Hospital in that city. The distinguished publish-
ing house of Harper agreed to issue their inventions, and an
infamous book entitled " Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk "
appeared, ostensibly published by Howe & Bates, and contain-
ing the pretended revelations of Maria. In this work, written
it would seem by a Mr. Timothy Dwight, the nuns of the Hotel
Dieu are accused of the most revolting crin.'3s, such as stifling
children between mattresses, and putting to death novices who
refused to partake in their debar .'liery with the priests of the
seminary of Montreal. In vain +lie whole press of Canada,
Fi-otestant as well as Catholic, ".nmasked the imposture in all its
details. The Avhole hfe of the heroine was traced from her
cradle to her illicit connection with a Rev. Mr. Hoyte, and her
departure with him from Montreal. It was proved that she
never was in the Hotel Dieu, either as a nun or even as a ser-
vant; on the contrary, that she had been sent away from a
Magdalene asylum, and that the descriptions in the book 'tally
at variance with the Hotel Dieu, correspond with the Magda-
lene Asylum ; that the names of the pretended nuns are really

* Plea for the West, hj Lyman Bccolier. Cincinnati. Brutiis, or a
Foreign Conspiracy against the Liberties of the United States : by C. F. B.
Morse. New York, Leavitt, 1835.

IN T^E UNITED STATE3.

245

those of her fellow-penitents within the asylum.* In spite of
all this refutation, the ministers and Protestarit Association of
New York extended protection and iufluenoe to the vile instru-
ment of their religious hate. One alone protested : Colonel
Wm. L. Stone, Editor of the Commercial Advertiser, at New
York, went with some other gentlemen to Montreal after
inviting Maria Monk and her friends to join them. There, book
in hand, they examined the Hotel Dieu, and were so completely
satisfied that Maria Monk had never been there, that on his
return Col. Stone published a withering exposnre of the gigantic
Iraud.f Still the concoctors of the work held out, confident in
the uni'easoning bigotry of the masses ; two editions of the vile
volume, each of 40,000 copies, were rapidly sold, and a second
appeared under the name of Maria Monk, more infamous and
mendacious still than the first fable of the courtesan.;};

So profitable was the mart of Protestant credulity that new
impostors came to compete with Brownlee, Slocum, Monk, and
Harper, now engaged in a fierce lawsuit, in which all swore to
the authorship and ownership of the book. Frances Partridge
appeared also as a runaway nun from the convent, and the ren-
egade priest, Samuel B. Smith, published, under the name of
Rosanwnd Clifford, an obscene romance pretending to unveil the
turpitudes of the confessional. §

* See " Awful Exposure of the atrocious plot formed by certain individ-
uals against the Clergy and Nuns of Lower Canada, through tlie intervention
of Maria Monk." Now York. Printed for Jones & Co., of Montreal, 1830,
p. 71.

t See Maria Monk and the Nnnnery of the Hotel Dieu, being an account
of a visit to the convents of Montreal, and refutation of the " awful disdo-
Burcs," by ^\'In. L. Stone. New York, Howe & Bates, lS3i5,48, 49.

X Farther Disclosures by Maria Monk, concerning the Hotel Diei; Nun-
nery of Montreal. Also her visits to the Nun's Island, and disclosures con-
corning the secret retreat. New York, published for Maria Monk, iS37.

§ For another attempt of Maria Monk, and its exposure, see " An expo-
Buro of "Maria Monk's pretended abduction and conveyance to tlie Catholic
Asylum, rhiladelphia, by six priests, on the night of August loth, 1S37."

.Hi

■i"

I -I

I-

I !

246

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

" It would seem, indeed," says Colouel Stone, " as though
these people had yielded themselves to this species of mono-
mania, and from mere habit they yield a willing credence to
any story against the Roman Catholics, no matter what or by
whom related, so that it be sufficiently horrible and revolting in
its detail of licentiousness and blood. It is melancholy to con-
template such credulity, and such deplorable fanaticism, and yet
the instances are multiplied wherein such delusion has been
wrought by the passionate appeals of the anti-Papist presses.
Nor is it to be denied that such publications as are now deluging
the country, fomenting the popular prejudices and appealing to
the basest passions of our nature — teeming as they do with loath-
some and disgusting details of criminal voluptuousness, under
the garb of religion, are ominous of fearful results, especially
from their influence upon the rising generation of both sexes."

" The people of this land," says the author of Protestant
Jesuitism, "and it is a common attribute of human nature —
love excitement, and unfortunately there are those who know
how to produce it, and profit by it. AVhen the bulletin, an-
nouncing the papal invasion of our shores and territory, has
spent its influence, because the enemy cannot be scon, in cornea
Miss Reed's ' Six Months in a Convent,' and the Ursuline School
is in flames ! When this is well digested — which, it must be

By W. H. Sleigh, Philadelphia, 1837. To form porno idea of the literature
of that day, we give the titles of eome other faimtical publications of the
period. Not a month passed without beholding a new pani' .ilet, surpassing
its predecessors in its vile calumnies of Catholic institutions :

" Louise, or the Canadian Nun,"

"Life of Scipio Eicci, the Jansenist Bishop of Pistoia," another scanda-
lous picture of convent life.

" Synopsis of Popery," by S. B. Smith. New York, 183G. The author
still lives. God grant him grace to repent.

" Open Convents," by Timothy Dwight, the author of the volume bearing
the name of Maria Monk.

" Popery as it was and is," by William Ilogan.

•'Papal Eome aa it is," by Kev. L. Giustiniani.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

247

though

confessed had in it some substantial nutriment, though a good
deal of 'ardent spirit,' producing no small measure of intoxica-
tion— then comes Maria Monk, one of the most arrant fictions
that was ever palmed upon the community. But the appetite is
good, and it is all swallowed. Close upon the heels of this
comes 'Rosamond's Narrative,' suiiported and commended by
the veritable ccrtiticatcs of reverend divines — illustrated with
plates — all for the instruction and benefit of our children and
youth of both sexes — to be found all over the land on the same
table with the Bible !"*

Under the sway of the agitation fomented by these incendiary
or immoral publications, Protestant Associations were formed in
all the cities of the Union, with the avowed object of protecting
the liberties of the country against the plots of the Pope ! That
in Philadelphia contained eighteen ministers; and the first
pledge into M'hich the conspirators entered, was never to employ
Catholic workmen or servants, and never to contribute to the
support of Catholic orphans. It was a conspiracy against
poverty and misfortune. The pulpits of error renewed their
fanatical appeals, and as the Rev. Mr. Goodman, a v.-orthy Epis-
copal clergyman, says, in his just indignation : " Congregations
instead of being taught from the pulpit t« >.torn their profession
by all the lovely graces of the Gospel, by kind and affectionate
bearing in the world, by earnest and ever active endeavors to
secure for themselves and othei's, the blessings of peace, were
annoyed with inflammatory harangues upon the ' great apostasy,'
,^'- ■ upon abominations of the Roman Church." " The Pope,
ana the Pope, and <he Pope !" was the beginning and the end
of the sermons in certain churches, and the women and children
were frightened with the details of the wicked doings of "him
of Rome ;" whilst they of the stature of men, were held breath-

* " Protestant Jesuitism," by a Protestant. New York, Harpers, 1838, p. 84.

248

THE CATHOLIC CIIUIICII

M i

' 1 3

less (•;ij)tlvcs wlicn tlu;' wcni ji<Mrcss(;(l hy tlicsc onilors upon
tlic sul)j('('t ol I'l.p.'il u><ih'[)!iti()iis, aiid the; ccelosiasticiil doiuiiiii-
lioii (U)iitoinjilati'(l l>y " Aiili-CIirist" in AiiiiMicii. 'J'lit'y wero
ti)l(l t) it tlioro was not a Cat' >lic cluiich, that had not uuclcr-
iioath it ])r(ii)aro(l coils for Protestant JK'rctios; tliat every priest
was a Jesuit in disguise; that the .l*opo was coniinj^ to this
country witli an army of cassoeked foUowers, and that each
wouKl be fully arinetl witli weapons, concealed under the folds
of his " Babylonibli robes." Never did Titus Gates detail inoro
liorrid conspiracies, in virtue of his station as informer-general,
than did these (derical sei\tincls; and all that wud wanting was
the power, and such a judge as .lelTries, to nndvo every Catholic
expiate liic " abominable heresy " upon the scaftold or amid the
llanies.*

But the ordinary preaching of the ministers always bearing on
the same subject, wearied their hearers, without heating them to
the degree of hatred to which they wished to bring them. They
then sought to discover sonic apostate from Catholicity whoso
revelations would be racy enough to stimulate curiosity. Then,
if a wretched priest had been weak enough to yield to his pas-
sions, be silenced by his bishop, the unfortunate man was sur-
rounded at once by all the allurements of heresy. A pension
was oftercd, a wife was proposed, case and rank assured him,
provided lie came forward as a Protestant — provided especially
that he consented to go from town to town like some stran<>'0
" beast," and lecture on the mysteries of the Confessional. But
as the United States do not produce apostates enough for the
supply, as these vile instnnnents are soon useless in the hands of

* The Truth Unveiled. Baltimore, 1844, p. 18. The antlior, the Rev. M.
Goodmiui, published iibout the same tiino tlie " Olivo Erauch," a warm np-
]>eal to couoord, to which the fanatics turned a deaf ear. These remarkahlo
tracts were cited by Bishop Spalding in an able article in the U. S. Catholic
Magazine, 1845, p. 1-16, and published in hit* Miscellany. An article which
ha3 served greatly in the composition of this chapter.

IN THE UNITED STATICS.

21!)

tlii'ir C'lnjtloyors, ihvy send to liluropc to get uu outt^.-ist of tlio
R.'iticliiHiy; i;ilKo ccrtilicjituH ofonliimtioii aro got up for men who
never jipproaclied an altar, but wlio wisli to act, tlie pari of vic-
lims of the Tncpiisition ; these aro tauglit to rehito a tlioiisand
iurpitudcH as to tlieir preten<lecl career, like the bird in Scriptnro
that defiled the nest in which it had been hatched. A book
appears in his nanuf (it is always the same, un(h'r a different
name) against tl'.3 Inquisition, Confession, Cleiical (Jelibacy, tho
Papacy, the rultns of tho Jilessed Virgin and tho Saints; then
th(!y drop into oblivion these heroes of a (hiy, who are useless
Avhen tlx^y can no longer give scandal. They are poisonous
fruits, out of which the vonoi •. has been pressed, ami tho insipid
pulp of wliich is fit only tc bo cast into tlio fh'o of earth and
heaven.

Thus successively appeared in the United States tho Ifogans,
Smiths, (Jinstiniani, Toodors, and Leahys. I'he last took tho
part of an ex-Trappist ; and as ho became more celebrated than
tho others, it may not bo amiss to give some outline of his life.
Leahy never was a monk of La Ti'app(!, nor of any other ordijr.
]Ie began life as a farmer's boy at Templemore, in Indand ; ho
then entered as a servant into the employment of tho Trapj>ists
of Mount Melloray; but remained oidy a few months there,
lleturuing to Templemore, he succeeded in getting a sum of
money from the parish pnest, by pretending that ho had been
sent by the Trappists, who were totally out of food. A\'ith this
money ho made his way to tho United States, where he married
a good girl, who soon had to leave him, as she found ho was en-
deavoring to sell her virtue. He then went to Mfirshall College,
representing himself as a convert to Protestantism ; but tlio
lionorablc directors of that institution were not duped by his hy-
pocrisy— they refused him all assistance. Other ministers were
not so delicate in the choice of their instruments ; and thu?
Leahy was enabled for a period of ten years to play the part of

250

tup: CATiioT-ic criuucii

an ex-monk, nnd have churches and pulpifs opened to liini, to
thunder against Cathoheity and the morals of the cleru;y. Hiir-
u\<r til is sli.imeful peregrination, Leahy married and rcpuiliati-d
four wives, ono of whom was crippled ibr life by the blows she
received from'liim in a fit of jealous frenzy. We need not men-
tion the i)ther victims of his passions, avIio were not even solaced
by any pretence of marriage ; the list would be too long. Jn
spite (»f his disorders, Lealiy held on liis scandalous sei-mons, and
the apostate's arrival in a town was always followed by scenes of
violence between the impostor's defenders and the Trish, who en-
deavored to silence the vile calumniator of their daughters and
sisters, whom he represented as victims in the confessional. The
bishops prevented greater evils, only by preaching patience and
resignation, and going among their flocks to calm their minds and
liearts. At last, Leahy's public life terminated in a manner worthy
of its outset. On the 20th of August, 1852, ho appeared in a
AVisconsin court to accuse his friend Manly of seducing liis wife.
^Nfanly was acfjuitted, and Leahy, in tlie very midst of the couit,
shot his rival dead, and with a second shot wounded a lawyer,
who ruslicd forward to stop him,*

Even these courses of disorder did not satisfy the fanatics, and
the arsenal of falsehood soon furnished them new arms against
the Catholics. The latter were now accused of wishing to ex-
clude the I^ible from the public schools, and the thousand-

* As capital punishment is iibolishcd in Wisconsin, Leahy was condemned
to perpetual imprisonment, and he is now expiatinjif his crime in the State
I^rison at Fond du Lac. The solitude of his cell seems to have inspired this
^'uilty man with salutary reflections, and for eij^iiteen months Leahy im-
]ilorcd to bo received into the Church. Bishop Ilcnni subjected him to a
lonf.' probation, and at last the Eev. Louis Dael was authorized to receive
once more into the bosom of the Church tlie guilty but now repentant man.
Tlie ceremony took place on the 20th of January, 1856. The way of the
transgressor is hard ; and Leahy, in his disgrace, finds how hollow is the
friendship which hurried him to crime, and how great is the love of that
Church which he had wronged.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

251

him, (o
'. Dnr-

pudiatcd
ows slio
not inen-
solacod
ii.u:. In
•ns, and
scenes of
who cu-
llers and
al. The
?neo and
linds and
)!• worthy
red in a
Ills w ife.
he court,
I la\\ycr,

itics, and
i against,
y to ex-
lousand-

iUilcmncd
the State
pirod this
eahy im-
h'lm to n
0 receive
tint man.
ly of tho
)W 18 tho
3 of that

ionguod press propagated and commented on the charge. The
Native Amv'rican party was formed to defend the Bible attacked
by " foreign papists." Monster meetings are called, and roused
to fury by incendiary appeals. The Bible is solemnly borne in
political processions, and thousands of braving arms are raised to
swear to protect the Holy Book against tho pretended attacks of
the Irish. At the head of f'losc manifestations in Philadelphia was
a ci-devant Jew, Levin, who at a late date is conspicuous among the
Know-Nothings of 1855. The accusation was false, like all the
other calumnies of the enemies of God's Church, and the Con-
trollers of the Public Schools of Philadeli»hia, in the twenty-
sixth Annual Report, declare officially : " No attempt has ever
been made by any one in this Board, nor have th<i Controllers
ever been asked by any sect, person, or persons, to exclude the
Bible from the Public Schools."

The fact was, that the Catholics of Philadelphia, who, like their
Protestant fellow-citizens, paid taxes to suppoi't the Public Schools,
wished to enjoy liberty of conscience in the education of their
children. They did not ask to exclude the Bible, but they wished
it to be lawful for Catholic children to read the Catholic version
of the Scriptures; and this just request had been favorably re-
ceived by tho controllers of the schools, when the animosity of
the Natives found it their game to misrepresent the question, and
make it a war-cry against the Catliolics. In order to provoke the
Irish, all the Native meetings were c{\lled in parts more especially
inhabited by Catholics, and the latter were thus forced to listen
to all the abuse vomited forth in public on all that they held «a-
cred and venerable. On the 3d of May, 1844, an anti-Catholic
meeting at Philadelphia was disturbed by the indignant cries of
the Irish, but the disorder went no further than it does every day
in popular assemblies. Yet no better pretext was needed to ac-
celerate the explosion, and the pretext was found. On the 6th,
armed crowds hasten to the Irish quarter, and the battle began.

i'l

1 - ; H

|-;

m ^

»i j

252

THE CATHOLIC CHU1U;I1

' I

On tlio moriiing of the 7th, an svldn'ss of Hi^liop Konrirk \\m
jiosti'd up throiiH;lio\it tliu city, oxliorfinjij tlio Citholics " to fol-
low pcac*', and have charily." 'I'hosc wcnj innnt'diately torn
down hy tho NutivcH, whom tli« rnoriiin<^ papers called to arms:
"Thu bloody hiind of (ho Pope is upon us," said tht'so shocts ;
" tho model . St. liartholomcvv has Ih'j^vui ; the Irish papists have
risen to massacre us." While fire and murder desolate tho Ken-
sington suburb, a meeting was hoM in anotluu' part of tho city
with a Proteslant minister in the chair. Resolutions were passed
approving the steps of the Natives, and they adjourned by accla-
mation to tho scene of tho riot, to swell the ranks of the assail-
ants. Many houses occupied by Irisli fanviiies were in ashes;
women and (diildren fled to the country, without clothing ^r
food ; others are burned alive in their burning homes, or fall
dead, pierced by a volley .'is they attempted to esca}>e. Terror
reigned throughout the city, and the inhabitants, in self-defence,
wrote on their doors, " No popery here," or coarse insults to tho
Catholics.

On the 8tli, the rioters still ruled tlie city, and at two o'clock
J'. M. St. Michael's Churcli was in flames. The champions of re-
ligious liberty ajiplauded during the conflagration, and one papei
says : " When the cross which surmounted the church fell info
the flames, the crowd hurraed in triumph, and the fife and drmu
struck up Orange airs." At four o'clock the incendiary torch
was applied to the house of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed
Virgin, which was soon consumed. This Order had been insti-
tuted by tho zeal of the Rev. T. C. Donoghoe, at the very timo
of the cholera, and their devotedness in nursing the victims of tho
epidemic was so great, that the municipal body publicly testified
their city's gratitude, oftering them any recompense they desired.
The Sisters of Charity refused these propositions, and soon found
their reward in the ingratitude of their fellow-citizens. At six
o'clock in the evening, St. Augustine's Church was fired in its

Hi..

IN THE UNITED STATES. 253

■i»'k wsxH

turn, logctlicr with tho rectory. Tho precious library of (ho

" to fol-

' 1

Ilorniits of 8t. Aiigustine wa« plundered, and tho books j)ilcd up

I'ly toiti

and burnt. During tho cholera, tho parsonngo had been trans-

o niins:

formed into a hospital for the people of I'hiladelphia, and tho

hIio'Ih ;

liev. Mr. Goodman, in the pamphlet alreaily cited, says :

sis liHve

" With confusion of face, yet with impartial justice before

ho KcMi-

men and angels, the writer will state that in the season of that

tlio city

terrible scourge, the Rev. Mr. Hurley, priest of St. Augustine's,

(' passed

converted the Rectory, then in his occupancy, into a Cholera

•y accla-

Hospital, and placed it under the control of the proner authori-

i assfiil-

ties. The doors of his quiet home were thrown wide open ;

ashcs ;

and unmindful of tho inconvenience to which such an act sub-

liing nr

j(!cted liim, ho not only invited tho guardians of the citv .s

', or fall

liealth to deposit tho victims of the pestilence in his house, but

To nor

liimself was employed without intermission in seeking out tho

(l''t('nw,

wretched creatures upon whom tho dreadful disease liad fa'Vn !

t« to tho

Every room in his mansion was appropriated to this <'ivJim

work ; his own chamber was given to tho dying, and that study,

o'clock

where ho had learned his Master's will, was made the practical

IS of rc-

(!ommentary of the judgment lie had formed of it. Out of

le p.-ipci

three hundred and sixty-seven patients, which had boon received

I'll into

in this private Asylum of a heavenly charity, forty-eight only

d drinu

were Catholics — the remainder were professing Protestants."

•y torch

"Go to that Rcctoiy; mark that it is in ruins; — that the very

Blessod

liospital has been burnt by miscreants, who dared to profane the

n iusti-

name of Protestantism when they applied the iO;. h to the home

ry timo

of Catholic priests."*

s of tho ^

On the blackened walls of St. Augustine's Church there

cstificd

remained only the inscription, " The Lord Seeth."

iesired.

At last, on the 9tli of May, martial law was proclaimed in

1 found

I'hiladelphia; the military commander ordered the rioters to

At six

in its

* Tlic Tratli Unveiled by a Protestant and Native Fhiladclphian. Balti-

(

more, 1844, p. 21.

254

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Ji-

1*?

.11'

disperse in five minutes, and order was restored as soon as the
brigands saw that the authorities were resolved to put a stop to
their fury. The least display of energy would Lave produced
the same result three days before ; but the disorder must reach
its heiaht before authorities will come forward to protect tlie
Catholic. On the 6th of May the militia had refused to tali up
arms unless paid in advance. They obeyed the call on the Vth,
but the rioters defied the troops to use their arms, and at the
command " Fire," the soldiers replied, " How can we fire on our
brethren !" St. Michael's Church was burnt before the eyes of
the militia without their offering any resistance. In the very
worst of the plunder and conflagratioUj the Mayor and Sheriff
had a consultation with the Attorney-General, to know whether
they had a right to use force, and what degree of force, to put
down the riot! The legal functionary told them that they
could employ force, and just as much as was necessary : " lie
knows that the power has been sometimes questioned, but he
thinks that on the whole he would employ just the degree of
force indispensable." When the disorder ceased rather from
lassitude than from its being repressed, the tactics of the author-
ities were to dissemble its importance. They sought to convey
the idea that it had been the affair of a few boys ; and the
Mayor issued a proclamation calling on parents to keep their
children at home. In the investigation instituted to account for
these deplorable events, the Grand Jury did not fail to throw the
first blame on the Catholics, and they saw the cause of the riots
— we will quote their very words — in " the efforts of a portion
of the community to exclude the Bible from our Public Schools :
the jury are of the opinion that these efforts in some measure
gave rise to the formation of a new party, which called and held
public meetings in the District of Kensington, in the peaceful
exercise of the sacred rights and privileges guaranteed to every
citizen by the Constitution and laws of our State and country.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

255

IS the
[top to
kluced
I reach
•t tJie

These meetings were rudely disturbed and fired upon by a band
of laAvless, irresponsible men, some of whora had resided in our
country only for a short period. This outrage, causing the
death of a number of our unoffending citizens, led to immediate
retaliation, and was followed up by subsequent acts of aggression
in violation and open defiance of all law."*

At this shameful attempt to exonerate the Natives at their
expense, the Catholics called a meeting and made an address to
their fellow-citizens to restore the facts in their truth. They
had no diflSculty in proving that the first victims were Irishmen,
and that the Catholics had never made any attempts to exclude
the Bible from the public schools.f Men of good faith were
convinced; but incendiaries never fouu i recruits in their ranks;
and the want of energy in repressing the violence soon evoked
another riot in another district of Philadelphia.

On Friday, the 5th of July, 1844, the pastor of St. Philip
Neri's Church, in the Southwavk suburb, was warned that his
church would be attacked the following night. The Governor
of the State having authorized the formation of additional com-
panies of militia, one had been formed in the congregation of
this church and its armory was in the basement. Meetings were
at once called to avenge this provocation of the Catholics. The
Sheriff went to the church, and seized the arms ! but the crowd
was not satisfied, and insisted that a delegation of their body
should examine the church to see that no arms are concealed there.
Gratified on this point, as they have invariably been in attacks
on Catholic churches in the United States, the crowd instead of
dispersing, became doubly bold ; they threatened to renew the
scenes of May. General Cadwallader called out the militia and

* Presentment of the Grand Jury of tlie Court of Quarter Sessions of
May Term, 1844.

t Address of Catholic lay citizens of tiio city and county of Phila-
ielphia.

"'-tmm

256

THE CATII^MC CHURCH

ordered the crowd to disperse ; but the Honorable Charles Nay-
lor, an ex-member of Congress ordered out : " Do not fire on
the people," and harangued the troops to induce them to diso-
bey their officers. But the orator was soon arrested and con-
fined in the basement of the church. Tlie rioters then brought
up two field-pieces, and charging them with blocks of wood,
drove in the church doors and rescued Naylor. They dis-
armed the Montgomery Hibernian Greens who had been left
in charge of the prisoners ; they command them to retire ;
but treacherously attack them as they withdrew, and cut down
several.

General Cadwallader, who here laid the foundations of his
military fame, afterwards so glorious in the Mexican War, now
came to the relief of his guard, and a brisk cannonade began.
On Monday, the riot still continued, and the civil authorities of
Southwark, unable to quell it, made terms. The troor-s were
withdrawn, and by dint of proclamations, and appeals to con-
cord, by dint of lauding the intelligence of the masses and their
respect for the law, the authorities succeeded in calming the
effervescence and restoring order by disorder.

Such were the Philadelphia riots, which the Rev. Mr. Good-
man characterizes in these terms : " Nativism has existed for a
period hardly reaching five months, and in that time of its
being, what has been seen ? Two Catholic churches burned,
one twice fired and desecrated, a Catholic seminary and retreat
consumed by the torches of an incendiary mob, two rectories
and a most valuable library destroyed, forty dwellings in ruins,
about forty human lives sacrificed, and sixty of our fellow-citi-
zens wounded ; riot, and rebellion, and treason rampant on two
occasions in our midst ; the laws boldly set at defiance, and
peace and order prostrated by ruflian violence ! ! These are the
horrid everts which have taken jilace among us since the organ-
ization; and they are mentioned lor no other purpose, tlian that

IN THE UNITED STATES.

257

I'les IVay-
t fire on
1 to diso-
and con-
brought
of wood,
'liey dis-
)een left
retire ;
ut down

s of his
ar, now
began,
rities of
'jS were
to con-
id tlieir
ing the

. Good-
d for a

of its
•nrned,
retreat
etories

ruins,
w-citi-
n two
, and
•c tlio
rgan-
i that

•(I

9V>

reflection be entered upon by the community, which has been
so immeasurably disgraced by these terrible acts."*

Rarely does justice in the United States overtake the guilty
in these popular eruptions; but public opinion finally sides with
the victims of fanaticism ; and when oppression assumes too
iniquitous a foi'm, a reaction is sure to show itself in favor of the
weak and persecuted. The Catholics experienced this change
in the feelings of the Nation; and as we have shown in a pre-
vious chapter, they were in 1846 more free in the exercise ot
their worship and more respected in their faith, than at any
previous epoch in the history of the United States. At the
present moment the period of anti-Catholic agitation begins
anew, and the ministers of error have recourse to their old tricks
to fetter the wonderful progress of the Church. Gavazzi plays
Leahy's part. Miss Bn.ikley that of Miss Reed ; pamphlets arc
scattered around to denounce the pretended crimes of convent
life. The unoflfending visit of a venerable Nuncio is cited as a
living proof of the Pope's designs on the liberties of America.
Lamentations begin about the Bible, and the Protestant faithful
are called upon to defend the Sacred Volume, still menaced by
the Papists. The riots and devastation at Louisville recdl those
of Philadelphia, and the Know-Nothings of 1855 are a copy of the
Native Americans of 1844. Like the latter they are impelled
by Free Masonry, and L-ish Orangeism in crossing the Atlantic
has lost neitlier its nature nor its principles. There is then
every reason to believe that the crimes already committed
against the Church, as well as those about to come, \Yill have no

* The judgment of God on the authors of sacrilege are as evident in
America as elsewhere. Among the natives of 1344, concerned in the dc-
Btruction of the churches, was Col. Peter Albright. He led the mob at St.
Michael's, and exulted that the record of his baptism was destroyed at St.
Augustine's, for he was the son of Catholic parents. He died soon after,
very wretchedly, in an oyster cellar ; his brother .Jacob perished at u fire ;
hia widow and daughter were drowned in tlio Delaware, in 1856.

TiiiilMiWI

258

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

other result, than to advance tlie reaction in favor of the Catho-
lics in the really sound portion of the American mind. Besides,
God protects the Church, and has in store for it after these days
of trial, days of liberty in the United States.

CHAPTER XVII.

f<i i

rilfVi

UIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA (1844-1855).

Division of tlie diocese— Stafe of Delaware— Tlie Ladies of the Sacred Heart— The Sis
ters of the Visitation —The bisters of Notre Dame— Father Virgil Barber and hi»
family — Works of Bishop F. P. Kenriclv — His translation to the metropolitan Sec of
Baltimore — Rt. Kev. John N. Neumann, foui th bishop of Pliiladelphia.

After the conflagration of St. Augustine's Church, the congre-
gation of that church were hospitably received by old St. Joseph's,
where they had Mass and Vespers at special hours, so as not to
interfere with the usual services of that parish. In 1845 the
Ilerniits of St. Aucrustine built a schoolhouse on the site of their
old rectory, and used it as a temporary chapel till the county
allowed them damages for their loss, so as to enable them to re-
build their church. The amount claimed was one hundred thou-
sand dollars, and for three years the county officois kept the
aflfair before the courts and exhausted every subterfuge to escape
payment. Among the objections put forward by the counsel was
one which should be given as a proof of the intense stupidity,
ignoi'ance, or bad faith of the Pennsylvania bar. In order to en-
vel M ihe missionaries in the prejudice against the negroes, and
so c.;'ray the juiy against them, it was stated that the Augustini-
ans had been founded by an African negro ! In spite of all,
liowever, forty-five thousand dollars were allovi^ed, and in 1847 the
new church of St. Augustine was opened for service.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

259

the Catho-
BesJdes,
these days

art— The Sfs
rber and hi?
olitan Sec of

le coDgre-
. Josepli's,
as not to
1845 the
J of their
8 county
m to re-
'ed thou-
bpt the
) escape
usel was
:upidity,
!!• to en-
)es, and
Qfustini-
of all,
347 the

•KJI

»»»

At St. Michael's a shed was raised among the ruins, and servca
as a teniporar} chapel for some years, till they obtiiined of the
county the indemnity which the law imposed, and applied it to
build the church. Thus, loth indeed and reluctantly, Pennsyl-
vania repr.ired, at least in pai't, the material losses caused by the
riots of 1844, while Massachusetts, with all her boasted superi-
ority, lias constantly refused from 1834 to the present moment to
iudcnmify the Bishop of Boston for the frightful destruction of
the Ursuline Convent of Mount Benedict.

As the number of the faithful increased in Philadelphia, the
extent of the State rendered the episcopal charge too heavy for
one prelate.

The third and fifth Councils of Baltimore had asked the divi-
sion of the diocese, and the Sovereign Pontiff eti'ected it in 1843
by electing the Rt. Rev. Michael O'Connor to the See of Pitts-
burg. This new diocese comprised under its jurisdiction the
western part of Pennsylvania, and we shall speak of it in the en-
suing chapter. The diocese of Philadelphia retained the eastern
part of Pennsylvania, the State of Delaware, and Western New
Jersey. The last portion was detached from it in 1853, and the
whole State of New Jersey was formed into the diocese of New-
ark ; so that we shall treat at a proper time and place of the Cath-
olics of that State.

Delaware, one of the smallest States in the Union, containing
only ninety thousand inhabitants, owes its name to Lord De la
Wave, one of the early governors of Virginia, in hone <'f whom
the river Delaware receivod that appellation, which it eventually
gave to the Indians on its banks and to the little State at its
mouth. The colonization of this v rt of the American coast was
fii'st projected by Gustavus Adolj)hus, King c*^ Sweden, after
whose death Oxenstiern put his plan in execution by sending
out in 1638 two ships with settlers. A Swedish minister came
•is chaplain, and Lutheranism was the first creed of New Sweden,

260

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

■which gradually grew up aroxmJ Fort Christina, so called from
that queen who at a later date renounced throne and home to re-
turn to the creed of her forefathers, The Dutch of New Amsii'i-
dam (New York) set up claims i>> the part occupied by tlio
Swedes, and conquered it in 1 055. It then contained seven hu's •
drod European inhabitants. Nine years after, ihe Dutch in their
turn yieliled to tiie English, and De!a^vare was sr.ccessively an-
nexed to New York and Pennsylvania; but at last, ni 1703, "the
three coiciiies on the Delaware," Newcastle, Kent, and Sussc.*',
resoh^J to i'ovni a separate colon}^, and nou to send delegate^ to
the I*ermsjivania Aisaembly. Delaware tlms saw a po] ulalion
gather oi Swi'.Iibh I^i^herans, i>utcli Calviiiists, English Ejnsco-
palians, and Quakers. Xioro iihia a (.outury after Sweden had
lost all autiiotity over the •■' Ion}-, the National Church of Stock-
holm (Continue! L to maintain jnissionarics among their fellow-
believers Ml Amciica, and the Lutheran Church there even now
keeps up a certain intercourse with the established Church in
Sweden, like that of the Dutch Reformed Church with the Classis
ii! Holland, and the. Episcopal with the A.nglican Church.

'j'o the honor of tiie Swedisii Lutherans, it must be stated that
they sliowed more zeal for the conveision of the Indians than
either tlj.' Calvinists of Holland, or the Puiitans, Quakers, or
Episcopalians of England. The catechism of Luther was trans-
lated into Delaware by the missionary Campanius, and an edition
priniol at Stockholm in 1G90 by the Swedish king for gratuitous
distribution among the Indians.

Amid all the hostile sects on the soil of Delaware, the Catholic
element did not appear till late, and it still constitutes only a
small portion of the population. Some old Catholic families of
honor in our national annals are claimed by Delaware, and
among them we need only mention the gallant Shubricks. At
the French Revokition, too, some French Catholics settled in a".
Dear Wilmington, where Hugv -ots had removed befo< tbt

IN THE UNITED STATES.

3G1

called from
lonie to re-
w AmsUT'
ed by tho
seven hu! •
cli in ('heir
ssiveiy an-
703, "the
ik! Sussc..,
iIo^?:are<i to
poj ulr'tu'on
ill E])isco-
'eden luid
of S/.ock-
lir fellow-
even iKnv
'hurcli in
lie Classis
h.

tated that
ans than
akers, or
i^as trans-
n edition
t'atuitous

Catholic
i only a
lilies of
i"e, and
«. /,(,
in a:
the

■0

Tlic nnmber of Catholics, however, remained small. Yet tlio
Sisters of Charity from Emmetsburg founded one of their first
Louses at Wilmington, and opened an academy about 1830, and
sojnc yeai-s after, an orphan asylum. The happy results of this
fcichool in the education of young girls soon induced the Catholics
of Delaware to seek a college for their boys, and the zealous pas-
tor of Wilmington, the Rev. Patrick Reilly, at great sacrifice
opened in 1839 a school which has become a flourishing college.
In 184V the State Legislature granted this institution the rights
and privileges of a university ; a corps of seven professors devote
themselves to the education of the young men, and the most
eminent Protestant citizens are patrons of the work.

Under the able and vigilant administration of Bishop Kenrick,
the religious establishments extended rapidly in other parts of the
diocese. In 1838 the Seminary of St. Charles Borromeo at
Philadelphia was incorporated by the Legislature of Pennsyl-
vania, and from 1841 to 1853 it was directed by Lazarists, who
w^ere succeeded by secular priests, on the transfer of Bishop Ken-
rick to the metropolitan See of Baltimore. In 1842 the Hermits
of St. Augustine opened a college at Villanova,* but the destruc-
tion of their church and library at Philadelphia exhausted their
resources and deranged all their jilans ; still, they successfully re-
sumed the college exercises in 1846, and the Augustinians now
also possess at Villanova a beautiful monastery and novitiate.

In 1851 tlie Jesuits founded St. Joseph's College in Philadel-
phia, which was removed to a more spacious building four years
later; and in 1852 the Rev. J. Vincent O'Reilly opened in Sus-
quehanna county another college under the name of St. Joseph.

When Bishop Kenrick was appointed Coadjutor of Philadel-

* 7 iiiova is tliirteen > ',ilcs from 1 liiladelpliia, on the great Pcnntsylvania
El'"..- ad. In 1841, Dr. iVk.iarty, Superior of the Augustinians, purchased
tWij hundred acres there, which are lultivatod by the lay brothers of the
Order, and furnish important rcsource.s for tlie college and community.

I i

2C2

THE CATHOLIC CHUKCII

phia, the dioceso posst^ssed only a f'c.v Sisters of Charity from
Emmetsbu'.g, who had iiliarge of an orphan asyhun. Now six
rc'lijjious communities of women devote themselvos to all the
works of mercy, and eflect incalculable good. In 1842 the La-
dies of the Sacred Heart ojiened a boarding-school for gii'ls at
McSherrystown, near the Jesuit mission of Conewago. In 1847
this community opened a school in Philadelphia, and in 1849
purchased the beautiful spot called £den Hall, which ofters far
greater advantages than McSherrystown. The Ladies of the
Sacred Heart accordingly left the latter house, which became the
novitiate of the Sisters of St. Joseph. The institute of the Sacred
Heart, founded in Franco in 1800 by Father Joseph Varin, of the
Society of the Sacred Heart, and approved in 182G by Pope Ltso
XII., has had a Saperior-general since its origin, Madame Magda-
lene Josephine Barat. The motlier house is at Paris, and it gov-
erns the whole Order. In 1817 the first establishment of the
Sacred Heart in America was founded in Missouri, and from that
time these pious and distinguished ladies have extended to the
dioceses of New Oi'leans, New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Albany,
Buffalo, and the Vicariate-apostolic of Indian Territory. Three
hundred and fifty Ladies of the Sacred Ileai't devote themselves to
the education of young ladies in twelve academics, and maintain
besides, in connection with many of their establishments, free
schools for poor girls.

In the year 1848 the Visitation Sisters, from Georgetown, in
their turn opened an academy at Philadelphia, and about the
same time the Sisters of St. Joseph came from St. Louis to the
same city to take charge of St. John's Orphan Asylum. The
community of Sisters of St. Joseph came into existence at I'liy in
Velay, France, where it was erected by the P)i>lio}) of Puy,
Henry de Maupas, at the solicitation of the Jesuit Father Medaille.
In the course of his missions this Father assembled some holy
virgins who longed to devote themselves to God, and in 1650 the

IN THE UNITED STATES.

2G3

Now six
.to all the
J 2 the L.'i-
w girls at
In 1847
in 1849
o/ll-rs fur
OS of the
'ooamo tliQ
lie Sacred
ii'in, of the
Pope LcM)
le Magda-
nd it gov-
nt of iho
ft'O'ii that
^d to the
t, Albany,
^- Three
nselves (o
maintain
ents, free

-town, in
I'out the
is to the
n. The
' i-'uy in

of Puy,

fedaille.
Ki holy
O&O the

care of the orphan asylum at Piiy was confided to them. Smce
then the Sisters of St. Joseph have extended to almost every dio-
cese in France, and have establishments also in Savoy and Cor-
sica. In 1836 six Sisters of this congregation proceeded from
the diocese of Lyons to St. Louis, Missouri, imder the protection
of Bishop Rosati. In 1838 two others, who had learned in
Fnmce the manner of teaching the deaf and dumb, came o^er
and joined them. They soon spread greatly in the United States,
and now number over a hundred Sisters ; they have houses of
their Order in the dioceses of St. Louis, Pliiladelphia, Buffalo,
Wheeling, Quincy, and St. I'aul ; theii" principal house is at Ca-
rondelet, six miles south of St. Louis, and in 1851 they sent a
colony from Philadelphia to Toronto, in Canada West. This
congregation undertakes all works of mercy, such as the care of
hospitals, prisons, houses of refuge, oi-phan asylums, also directing
schools and visiting the sick in their dwellings. At Philadelphia
the Sisters of St. Joseph conduct. St. Anne's Widows' Asylum,
and teach twelve hundred children in their schools. Their novi-
tiate is at McSherrystown, in the old convent of the Sacred
Heart, and in 1855 it contained eleven no\.v;es and six postulants.
In 1849 Bishop Kenrick also enriched his diocese with a com-
munity of Sisters of the Good Shepherd, ii. order to create an
asylum for sinful women, who wish to leave a life of disorder
and embrace virtue. This community^ under the name of Our
Lady of Charity, was first established in 1641 ai Caen, in Nor-
mandy, by the celebrated Father Eudes, founder of the society of
priests called Eudists. Father Eudes, whose sermons reached
every conscience, effected a revolution in the life of many who
lived in vice. To maintain these in the path of duty, he assca:
bled them together and put them under the direction of some
holy Sisters. The community was approved in 1666, by Pope
Alexander VII., and in 17-11 by Benedict XIV. It acquired
great extent ■•«. France ; in 18"'^ the house at Angers separated

' f* .*■

I 9

K.; i ■. *^

2C1

TIIK CATHOLIC CllL^KCII

from the oilier houses, rikI was crect(!j by Pope Gregory XV^I.
the geiicnihite of a new bniiu li, which added to the name of Ow
Lady of Cliarity that of Gcv ' : (.'ili.vrd, and which lias spread
remarkably. The first <: fabiisiii.icia of this venerable Order in
the United States was made at Louisville in 1842. They arrived
in I'hiladelphia in 18-19, and took care of the Asylum fur Widows
till 1851, when they were enabled to open an asylum for penitent
women. They ha\e now thirty-six penitents, ,' oive Protest-
ants as well as Catholics. A house of the Good Shepherd was
founded in St. Louis in 1849, and the Archbishop of New York
is now coUecu 1": the funds necessary to erect an asylum, the need
of which is feb m the great city where he has his metropolitan See.
While young girls of American, Irish, and French origin fmd
in the diocese of Philadelphia abundant resources for education
at the Sacred Heart Visitation, the Sisters of St. Joseph, and the
Sisters of Charity, tho German portion have had, since 1840, the
School Sisters of Nt tre Dame, at St. Peter's Church, in Phila-
delphia. The Kedemptorists founded this church in 1843, and
immediately opened schools for boys. Then, as soon as their re-
sources permitted, they invited the Bavarian School Sisters of
Notre Dame, who direct the German schools in a great many
parishes served by the Redemptorists. In spite of their German
origin, these good Sisters preserve the French name of Notre
Dame, a proof that their primitive foundation was not made in
Germany, They were, in fact, founded in Lorraine in 1597,
under the name of Sisters of the Congrogatiou of Notre Dame,
by the Blessed Peter Fourier and the ven^jrable Motlier Alice
Leclerc* Their community was authorized by the Bishop of

* Mother Alice Leclerc, born in 1576, died • • 1622 ; tlie process of her
canonization was begun, but was finally susSiH 'd ii consequence of the
revolutions. Tl>.c TJlessed Peter Fourier was ljiu at .Nirccourt in Lorraine,
the 15th of Novemoer, 1565 ; lie was the refoiiner of the Canons Regular of
Lorrai-- and founder of the congregation of !Notre Dame. lie died at Gray
on the Vvh of November, 1640, and was beatified by bulls of January 29, 1850.

IN THE UNITKI) B'IATKS.

265

ivgory XVr.
nuiiic) of (")iir
liHs sjn'cail
ble Order in
riu'y . nivi'cl
I iw Widows
or penitent
*^ive Protest-
lu'plierd was
f New York
an, the need
opolitau See.
Ii origin find
)V education

■ph, and tlio
ce 1840, the
;h, in Phila-
Q 1843, and
I as their re-
)! Sisters of
great many
lieir German
16 of Notre
lot made in
18 in 1597,
Fotre Dame,
[otlier Alioe
e Bishop of

roccss of her
juence of the
•t ill Lorruine,
ina Regular of
3 died at Gray
luary 29, 1850.

Toul in 1598, and their first rule made by the Blessed Fetor,
jind approved in ICu.'} by the Cardinal of Lorraine, Legato of the
Holy See. Bopo I'aul V. erected the houses of the Order into
monasteries by his bulls of February 1, 1015, and October 6,
1010; and in the course of the seventeenth century there were
no less than eighty monasteries of this institute in Franco, Lor-
raine, Germany, and Savoy. On the dispersion of the religious
communities in the Reign of Terror, those in Franco were broken
up, and about the same time, under the impulse of the doctrines
of Joseph T. ot Austria, the houses in the electorate of Bavaria
were suppressed and the Sisters dispereed. The loss was deeply
felt, and the pious Bishop Wittman of Ratisbon, in 1832, re-
solved to revive their Order and restore their house at Stadt-am-
hof. The rule was modified to suit the changed circumstances
of the times ; and as they were intended only for education, they
took the name of School Sisters of Notro Dame. Mother Mary
Theresa, the firet Superior-general, still survives, and had the con-
o> lation of seeing her Order formaUy approved by his Holiness
Z -ne Pius IX., on the 23d of January, 1854.

Prior to this, in 1847, she sent from the mother house, at Mu-
nich, three Sisters to found a house at Baltimore. The mother
house of the Order in the United States is at Milwaukie, and the
residence of Sister Mary Caroline, the Vice Superior-general.
They had in 1855 twenty-ono novices and as many postulants,
and direct German schools in the dioceses of Milwaukie, Balti-
more, Philadelphia, New York, Pittsburg, Buffalo, and Detroit.

While the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Damo are
increasing in Bavaria, and sending colonies to the United States,
another part of America beholds in a state of prosperity a con-
gregation which bears the same name of Notre Dame, and which
seems to us to have some ties with the pious institute of Mil-
waukie. In 1826, a monastery of the congregation was estab-
lished at Troyes, in Champagne, under the episcopate of Ren6

^ ■?f.:

I ;

i I

266

THK CATHOLIC CIIURCU

de Brcslay. Tn lO.jn, Monsieur dc MulsHonncuvo, first Governor
of Montreal, in Canada, wont to Troyes, where the Sisters of
Notre Dame bogged liiin to take some of their religious to di-
rect the schools in this now colony. Mr. de Maissonneuvo could
not bear the expense of this now foundation, and he moreover
believed that, in the precarious state of the colony, an order of
cloistered religions would not render all the service to be desired.
He accordingly took with him only Margaret Bourgeoys, prefect
of the external congregation founded by the Sisters at Troyes ;
and the lioly virgin became at Montreal the foundress of the
Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame, which now com-
prises in Canada twenty-five missions, two hundred Sisters, and
instructs five thousand six liundred girls.* There is still another
community in the United States, known by the name of the
Sisters of Notre Dame ; but its origin is different. It was found-
ed in 1804, by Father Joseph Varin and Mother Julia Billiard.
The mother house is at Namur, in Belgium ; and it has houses in
the United States, in the dioceses of Cincinnati, Boston, and San
Francisco.

We see with what admirable zeal Bishop Kenrick labored to
afford his diocese the benefits of numerous religious communi-
ties ; and the venerable prelate was not less successful in in-
creasing the number of his parochial clergy. When he became
Coadjutor of Philadelphia in 1 830, the diocese contained only thirty
priests. When the confidence of the Holy See called him, in
1851, to the Archbishopric of Baltimore, he left to his successor
ninety-four churches and eight chapels, with one hundred and
one priests in the diocese, besides forty-six seminarians, although
h.ilf of Pennsylvania had been erected into the new diocese of
Pittsburg. The clergy formed by the example of Bishop Ken-

* Helyot, Histoire des Ordrea Religieux (edition Migne), i. 1088. Faillon,
Vie de la Soeur Bourgeoys, Villemarie, 1853. Laroche Heron, Los Servautea
de Dieu, Canada. Montreal, 1855, p. 43.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

267

first Governor
tlio Sisters of
•eligious to di-
onneuve could
. lio inoreovor
ly, an order of

to be desired.

•geoys, prefect
ers at Troyes ;
undress of the
ich now corn-
ed Sisters, and
is still another
9 name of the

It was found-
Julia Billiard,
t has houses in
Boston, and San

•ick labored to
ious communi-
iccessful in in-
hen he became
,ined only thirty
called him, in
;o his successor
3 hundred and
irians, although
new diocese of
Df Bishop Ken-

i. 1088. Fuillon,
ou, Los Servautea

rick has counto<l in its ruiikh the most cmintfut members of tho
Crunch in the United States: tho Uov. John Hughes, I'astor of
St. John's, J'hiliulcliihia, now Archbishop of Now York; tho
Rev. I'eter li. Keiirick, Vicar of tho Cathedral in 1830, and
now Arohbi.shop of St. Louis ; tho Rev. Kdward Barron, Vicar-
general of tho dioceso in 1839, and in 1843 Vicar-apostolic of
Upper and Lower Guinea ; tho Rov. F. X. Gartlaiid, Vicar of St.
John's in 1834, and in 1850 Bishop of Savannah ; tho Rev.
Michael O'Connor, Pastor of Morristown in 1840, atid in 1843
Bishop of Pittsburg ; tho Rev. Thonuis Iloydon, Pastor of St.
I'aul's, I'ittsburg, in 1838, who has repeatedly refused to c^uit his
parish of Bedford to assume tho mitre.

. But wo owe a special mention to a holy religious, who exer-
cised the ministry in Pennsylvania for several years — in 1836
at Conewago, and in 1834 at Philadelphia. In 1807, the Rev.
Daniel Barber, Congregationalist minister in Now England, had
baptized in his sect Miss Allen, daughter of the celebrated Amer-
ican general, Ethan Allen, so renowned in Vermont, his native
State. Tho young lady was then twenty-one years of age : she
soon after proceeded to Montreal, where, entering the academy
of tho Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame, she became a
Catholic, and devoting herself to God, joined the community of
Hospital Nuns, at the Hotel Dieu, whore she died piously in
1819, having induced tho Protestant physician who attended her
to embrace Catholicity by the mere spectacle of her last mo-
ments. The conversion of Sister Allen produced other fruits of
grace on her co-religionists, and her former pastor, the Rev. Mr.
Barber, after becoming a member of the Protestant Episcopal
sect, halted not in the way of truth, but abjured the errors of tho
pretended Reformation, in 1816. The son of this clergyman,
the Rev. Virgil Barber, born on the 9th of May, 1782, was also
a minister. He, too, had been convinced of the necessity of
joining the Church of Rome, and entered it with his father.

^.'

iiirf?'

268

THE CATHOLIC CHUllCH

I J

■J>

r- 6

Mrs. Virgil Barber followed their example, and she and her hus-
band resolvod to abandon all and separate from each other, for
God's service. Mr. Virgil Barber, in consequence, went to Rome
in 1817, and obtained of the Sovereign Pontiff the authority
necessary for the step. He entered the ecclesiastical state, was
ordained in that city, and after spending two years th,ire, returned
from Europe, bringing his wife authorization to embrace the re-
ligious state. She had entered the Visitation Nuns at George-
town, and for two years followed the novitiate. Mr. and Mrs.
Barber had five children, four daughters and one son. The last
was placed at the Jesuit College at Georgetown, while the daugh-
ters were at the Academy of the Visitation, yet without knowing
that their mother was a novice in the house. The time of her
probation having expired, the five children were brought to the
chapel to witness their mother's profession, and at the same time,
on the steps of the altar, their father devoting himself to God as
a member of the Society of Jesus ! At this touching and unex-
pected sight, the poor children burst into sobs, believing them-
selves forsaken on earth. But their Father who is in heaven
watched over them ; he inspired the four daughters with the de-
sire of embracing the religious state, and three of them entered
the Ursulines : one at Quebec, one at Boston, and one at Three
Rivers. The fourth made her profession among the Visitandines
of Georgetown ; their brother Samuel was received into the So-
ciety of Jesus, and is now at Frederick.*

Father Virgil Barber, after filling with general edification sev-
eral posts in Pennsylvania and Maryland, became Professor of
Hebrew in Georgetown College, and died there March 27, 1847,

■iif?

* Faillon, Vie de M'lle Mance, et Histoire de I'llotel Dieu de Villeraarie, i.
294 ; Catholic Almanac for 1848, p. 263. Sister Mary Barber (of St. Benedict)
witnessed the destruction of the U»sulino Convent, near Boston, and died at
Quebec, May 9, 1848. Sister Catharine Barber (of St. Thomas) followed
Bishop Odin to Texas, in 1849.

■jfeesTl

IN THE UNITED STATES.

269

she aud her hua-
m each other, for
ce, went to Rome
iff the authority
astical state, was
rs thjre, returned
embrace the re-
N^uns at George-
3. Mr. and Mrs.
le son. The last
while the daugh-
without knowing
The time of her
i brought to the
it the same time,
imself to God as
iching and unex-
believing them-
ho is in heaven
ters with the de-
of them entered
id one at Three
the Visitandines
ed into the So-

edification sev-
ne Professor of
larch 27, 1847,

I de Villemarie. i.
-(of St. Benedict)
>Hton, and died at
?homa3) followed

at the age of sixty-five. Sister Barber long resided at Kaskas-
kia, Illinois, where she founded a Monastery of the Visitation.
The grace of conversion extended also to other members of the
family, and a nephew and pupil of Father Virgil Barber, Wil-
liam Tyler, born in Protestantism at Derby, Vermont, in 1804,
became in 1844 first Catholic Bishop of Hartford, and died in
his diocese in 1849.

This is not the only example which the United States presents
of married persons, wl ^, on embracing Catholicity, have carried
the sacrifice to its utmost limits, and asked as a signal favor to
devote themselves to the religious state. Father John Austin
Hall, a Dominican and Apostle of Ohio from 1822 to 1828, was
an English otfieer of many years' standing, who, touched by the
spectacle offered by religion in Italy and France, abjured heresy,
and converted his family and his sister. The latter and his wife
entered a community of English Augustinian Nuns in Belgium,
while Father Hall assumed the habit of St. Dominic ; and this
zealous missionary, dying at Canton, Ohio, in 1828, left to the
United States the reputation of the most eminent virtues. But
these separations from religious motives have at times been the
occasion of scandals in the Church, and the prosecutions insti-
tuted by the Rev. Pierce Connelly have been too widely made
known, for us to pass over them here.

The Rev. Pierce Connelly was minister of the Episcopal
Church at Natchez, Mississippi, in 1827, and \.as distinguished
by his Puseyite tendencies, which drew on him the ^ ioient at-
tacks of the Protestant press. In 1836 he set out for Europe,
accompanied by his wife. She became a Catholic at New r)i.-
leans some days before setting sail, and her husband followed
her example at Rome, in the Church of Trinite de Monti, March
28th, 1836. In the first fervor of their conversion, they asked
to devote themselves to God by the vows of religion ; but were
dissuaded from accomplishing the sacrifice, and after two }eais

270

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Fi: ■

if :l

spent in Rome and France, they returned to America, where
they lived several years in retirement. In the month of July,
1842, Mr. Connelly gave a lecture in the Cathedral of Balti-
more, embracing an edifying account of his conversion. Soon
after, they both returned to Rome, and so earnestly renewed
their petition, that they were at last allowed to separate. Mrs.
Connelly entered the Institute of the Sacred Heart, and in 1844,
Mr. Connelly received the tonsure in the church of the house
whei'e his wife was. Two years after, he was ordained, but in
vain solicited entrance into the Society of Jesus. The Ladies of
the Sacred Heart also declined to receive the profession of Mrs.
Connelly. She accordingly left Rome and went to England,
where the Earl of Shrewsbury gave her a house to found an
educational establishment. The Rev. Mr. Connelly at the same
time became the chaplain of the earl, and the tutor of his adopt-
ed son. Ere long, however, the frequent interchange of letters
between the two converts excited distrust, and Mrs. Connelly, by
her confessor's advice, refused to continue it. Of this the Rev.
Mr. Connelly complained bitterly, and gradually relapsing into
Protestantism, applied to the English tribunals to recover his
wife. The proceedings which ensued created great discussion
in England in 1849 and 1850 ; but Mrs. Connelly always refused
to violate the vows of religion which she ad pronounced, not
merely with the consent, but at the entreaty of her husband ;
and she continues to lead an exemplary life at the head of a com-
munity, first at Derby, but afterwards transferred to Hastings.
Baffled ambition seems to have been the unfortunate cause of
Mr. Connelly's fall. Flattered by the welcome shown him at
Rome, he thought only of becoming a bishop, and even a cardi-
nal ; and the honorable position which the earl gave him in his
family was not sufficient to satisfy Connelly's vanity.*

* U. S. Cutholic Magazine, 1842, p. 409; 1S44, i.. 540; 1849, p. 290;
416, p. 800.

IN THE UFITED STATES.

271

America, where
month of July,
|hedral of Balti-
version. Soon
rncstlj renewed
separate. Mrs.
rt, and in 1844,
i^ of the house
Trained, but in
T]ie Ladies of
)fession of Mis.
It to England,
e to found an
Jy at the same
31' of his adopt-
ange of letters
■s. Connelly, by
f this the Rev.
relapsing into
to recover his
■eat discussion
ilways refused
onounced, not
tor husband ;
cad of a com-
to Hastings.
Jate cause of
lown him at
2ven a cardi-
e him in his

1849, p. 290;

■ A

Tlie vigilant Bishop of Philadelphia, whose numeroi s labors
we have mentioned, found, moreover, time to write and publish
several works which enjoy a merited reputation wherever the
English language is spoken. His Dogmatic and Moral Theology,
in seven volumes, is a complete treatise on the sacred science,
adapted to the general wants of the country.

" The appearance of so large a work written in good Latin,
and intended really for use, was a source of wonder to the Prot-
estant public and clergy, few of whom could even read it with-
out some difficulty, and none, perhaps, with ease, Consideied in
a literary point of view, it marks the classic character of our
writers, a familiarity with Roman literature, which is unequalled
in the country. The canons and decrees of the Councils held
at Baltimore, which England's first Orientalist, Cardinal Wise-
man, ranks with those of Milan, display an equally correct taste.
Even in the backwoods, with rough work and rough men, Badin,
the fii-st priest ordained in our land, sings in Latin verse the
praises of the Trinity."*

The Church, by prese^'ving Latin as the Liturgical language,
saved that noble language from oblivion, and through it saved
the Greek ; and Protestantism, with its love for the vernacular,
devoted the highest classes of society to ignorance of the authors
of ancient Rome. A few years since, the United States regard-
ed as a wonder a Latin life of Washington, and vavnted it be-
yond all conception by the thousand-tongued press. There is
not a Catholic country curate thai could not have done as much;
and yet public opinion in America will long preserve the preju-
dice that ignorance is the necessary condition of Catholics. In

* Oatliolic Liter;itnre in tlio United States, Metropolitnii Magazine, i. 74.
Tlie title of tlie poem of the venerable Mr. Badin is, "Sanctissimae Trioi-
tatis Laiides, ctinvocntio; Carmen; auotore Stcpliano Tiicodoro Badin,
Protosacerdote Ballimorent^i, nrobante," &c. LudovicivilliE, tvpus, E. J.
Webii.

;'..}' - 1

1^ I

272

THE CATllbLIO CIIUKCII

the United States, an author reed only be sispected of not be-
ing a Protestant, for his work to be prejudged and precondcnin-
ed; and it is the same in England. Yet Americans should
remember that the Catholic clergy of Canada taught the chil-
dren of the Mohawks to read and write within twenty miles of
Albany, at a time when there was n()t a 1 atin school in the
whole colony of New York. Quebec liad a college before New
England could boast of one ; and so completely was the idea of
Catholicity then blended witli that of classical studies, that in 1G85,
wtien a Latin school was opened at New York, the master was
ipso facto suspected of being a Jesuit.*

Bishop Konvick also wrote the " Primacy of the Apostolic
See," one of the most remarkable works issued in America.
The book first appeared in several letters, or parts, as a refuta-
tion of the attacks on the Papacy made by the Right Rev. John
H. Hopkins, I'rotesiant Bishop of Vermont. These letters were
first published in 1842 and 1843 ; but the eminent author sub-
sequently recast the whole work, dropping the aggressive and
familiar tone of controversy, and in its new form it has passed
through sevei'il editions in America, and been even translated
into German. Hie learned prelate has also composed creatises
on Baptism and Justification ; and his old antagonist, Dr. Hop-
kins, having published " The End of Controversy Controverted,"
Archbishop Kenrick, in 1855, replied in his "Vindication of the
Catliolic Church," a series of letters addressed to the Bishop of
Vermont.

On tlie death of the Most Rev. Samuel Eccleston, fifth Arch-
bishop of Baltimore, the distinguished merit of Bisliop Kenrick
marked him as the fittest to occup}- the Metropolitan See, and
he was in fact called to that dignity by bull of August 3, 1851.
His successor at Philadelpliia is the Right Rev. John Nepomucen

* Cimada and her Historians. Metropolitan Magazine, i. 148.

IN THE IGNITED STATES.

273

[('•'t'^Hl of not be-
iiid precoiulcnin-
"ifrit'fuis should
ii'ight the chil-
twcnty niilos of
[n school in the
[ego beforo Now
was the idea of
ies, that ill 1685,
the master was

t' the AjX)stoIi(;
d in America.
Its, as a refuta-
:iglit Rev. Jolin
'^se letters were
'»t author suh-
aggressivc and
> it lias passed
n-en translated
posed treatises
"ii*^t. Dr. JIop-
^ontroverted,"
lication of th<3
the Bishop of

'n, fifth Arch-
^hop Kenrick
!tan See, and
2:iJst 3, 1851.
N'eponiuceu

, i. 148.

Neniiiaiin, of the Order of the Most Holy Redeemer, a native of
the Austrian States. At the time of his election, the new prelate
was rector of tlie Redemptorist house at Baltimore : he was con-
secrated on the 28th of March, 1852.

Bishop Neumann has zealously continued the work of his
predecessor; and although his diocese lost in 1853 half of New
Jersey, it contained, in 1856, one hundred and thirty -eight
churches and chapels, with twenty-five other stations, one hun-
dred and thirty-seven priests, and a Catholic population of one
hundred and seventy-five thousand souls.

OHArTER XVI I r.

PENNSYl.VAMA (1750-1840.)

Diocese of PitWburg— Tlie Recollects at Fort Duquosnc— The llov. Father Brauers—
Sketch of Prince Deinetriiis Galiitzin.

We have stated already that the Holy See in 1843 yielded to
the request of the P'ifth ^'ouncil of Baltimore, by forming the
western part of Pennsylvania into a distinct diocese from that of
Philadelphia. On the 7th of August, 1843, the Very Rev.
Michael O'Connor was called to the new See of Pittsburg, and
that prelate being in Rome at the time received consecration in
the Holy City, on the feast of tlie Assumption. Bishop O'Con-
nor, born in Ireland, on the 27th of September, 1810, was
ordained at Rome in the year 1833, devoted himself to the
American missions in 1838, and after serving several parishes in
the interior of Pennsylvania, was successively professor in the
seminary, pastor at Pittsburg, and Vicar-n(>neral of the dio-

19*

274

THE CATHOLIC CIIUIICII

cesc, displaying in all these functions a zeal and talents which
scon marked him for the episcopacy.

The Jesuit missionaries of Maryland did not extend the circle
of their apostleship to that part of I'cunsylvania now comprised
in the Sees of Pittsburg and Erie. Colonization, which always
began by the belt of laud lying nearest to the ocean, had not yet
penetrated so far, and the Indians inhabited the forests undis-
turbt d by the clearings of the white man. So little was it
known that even in 1750 it was not settled whether the Ohio
bi'gan in Pennsylvania or in Virginia. Down almost to the
close of the last centnry the missionaries penetrated no further
vfst than Concwago; but the new emigrants gradually striking
mlard crossed t le Alleghauies, and as they bore civilization to
the tt-iuile valley of the Ohio, priests came that Catholics might
not be destitute of all religious aid. In the year 1798, the llev.
Theodore Brauers, a Dutch Franciscan, settled at Youngstown,
w^here he bought a farm and built a chapel. This village is not
far from Pittsburg, and it was then the only spot where the
Holy Sacrifice was offered for the salvation of men in the vast
territory which was erected in 1843 into the diocese of Pitts-
burcr. J^'rom Lake Erie to Conewago, from the first hills of the
Alleghany to the Ohio, there existed no church, no priest, ex-
cept the humble oratory of Father Brauers ; and now the district
forms two dioceses, where a population of 60,000 Catholics
receive the care of eighty priests, in ninety churches. The Right
Rev. Doctor O'Connor assures us that he has been told by one of
the oldest inhabitants, that the first Catholics in that part of
Pennsylvania came from Goshenhoppen, and that the missionary
Avho served that parish promised that they should be visited in
the new settlement by another priest. It was in fulfihnent of
this promise that Father Brauers settled at Youngstown. His
death gave rise to a fcurious lawsuit, in which the Pennsylvania
judges showed themselves the enlightened protectors of the

IN THE UNITED STATES.

275

5(1

lot

rights of the Church ; and such a spirit of justice is more de-
serving of mention, as it is not always found in the law courts of
the United States. By his will, dated at Greensburg, West-
moreland county, October 24, 1789, Father Theodore Brauers
had left his property to his successor, on condition of his saying
masses for the repose of his soul. A wandering priest named
Francis Fromm, took possession of the parsonage and church ; and
as he said the masses, claimed the property against the lawful
priest sent by the Bishop. Father Brauers' executors had
recourse to law, and the judge decided that a Catholic priest
must be sent by his Bishop, although he expressed his astonish-
ment that a man of Father Brauers' good sense should order
masses to be said for the repose of his soul.* The first talent in
Pennsylvania was employed in the suit, in which Judges Bald-
win and Breclcenridge both spoke. The Rev. Mr. Fromm proved
that he was a regular priest, and exhibited the certificate of the
Bishop of Mentz, as well as the consent of Father Brauers' con-
gregation. These considerations might have influenced the
judges; but their decision upheld the Bishop, and this case has
been repeatedly cited as an authority in cases of a similar nature.
Father Brauers was not the first priest, nor even the first
Franciscan, who offered the Sacred Victim on the soil of Western
Pennsylvania; and as early as 1755, that is, just a century
since, we find French Recollects attached as chaplains to the
French forts on the valley of the Ohio. That part of Pennsyl-
vania was then claimed by France, and in fact the whole valley
of the Ohio is comprised in the Letters Patent of Louisiana, in
1712. The actual taking of possession is not more undoubted
than the discovery, and the Canadians had launched their canoes
on the Beautiful River years before the Pennsylvania settlers
knew of its existence. To unite the establishments on the St.

* Executors of Brauers against Fromm. Add. Pennsylvania Reports, page
862. Father Brauers' name is in the Bible of 1790.

276

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Lawrence with those on the Mississippi, France first reared a
line of defences along the lakes, the Wabash and Illinois; hutthe
Ohio valley had been left exposed to the enterprise of tlie English
colonies. To close it, the governors of Canada, in 1753 and
1754, built between Lake Erie on the Ohio, Fort Presqii'ile, now
the city of Erie, Fort Leboeuf, or " de la Riviere anx Bceufs," at
Waterford, the post of Venango, Foil Machaidt, and where
Pittsburg now stands, the celebrated Fort Duquesne.* For
four years the French valiantly defeinled these posts against far
superior forces, and Washington made his first campaign near
Fort Duquesne against his future allies. At the close of 1758,
however, the garrison fired the fort and retired, and in the fol-
lowing year the other forts were similarly abandoned. Although
these forts had trifling garrisons, not exceeding, in geiieral, two
hundred men, they had a regular chaplain, a proof how impor-
tant a place religion held in the ancient organization of France ;
and in the Registre desPostesdu Roi, still preserved at Montreal,
is the record of the burials and baptisms at Fort Duquesne from
1754 to 1756.

■■■5,4-

* Earthworks of considerablo extent arc still pointed out near Erie as tlie
ruins of the French fort. Fourteen miles southeast of Erie, Waterford vil-
lage lies on the banks of Lake Lebneuf, at the spot where Fort Lebnenf
Btood, and where its ruins are still to be seen. The stream running from the
lake is still called Lebrenf creek, and empties into French creek, which pours
its waters into the Alleghany. Franklin village, the county town of Venango,
is at the confluence of French creek and the Alleghany. Traces of the
French intrenchments are still to be seen. The one on the right was Fort
Machault; that on the left Venango. About 1804 a small silver chalice was
dug up at Waterford, near the ruins of the French fort, and was purchased
by a pious Catholic lady, Mrs. Vankirk, to save it from profanation. We
owe these interesting details as to the position of the old French forts to the
kindness of the Eight Rev. J. M. Young, Bis^liop of Erie, to whom we ex-
press our acknowledgment. Sargent, in Ynn, History of Braddock''s Expedition,
confirms it, and states that the ruins of Fort Venango cover a space of 400
feet square. The ramparts are eight feet high. All these posts are aoou-
rately laid down in an excellent sketch of Canadian history by Dussieux,
published at Paris in 1855.

^Wi

IN THE UNITED STATi-.S.

277

By this we learn tliiit Futlier Douis Baron, Uecollod, v,as at
thai tiine chaplain at Fort Duqnesne; and on the 30th of July,
1755, an entry of a buri}! )-\ signed by Father Luke ('ollet,
chaplain of the King at ForN 'rcsqu'ilo and Riviere anx Boeufs.
This Franciscan was merely on a visit at Fort Duqucsnc, au ho
officiated in the presence of the regular chaplain, Father Baron.
The latter was born at Pontarlier in Franchc Comto, and arrived
at Quebec in 1740. lie was probably a deacon at the time, for
the register of ordinations at Quebec mention, him as ordained
])riest there on the 23d of September, 1741. Father Denis
Baron was sent uccessively to Tlu' c II ers, Montreal, Niagara,
Cape Bretu, , and to Acadia. We find 1 im then chaplain at
Fort Duquesne, Fort St. John, Fort St. Frederic or Crown
Point, and the register of this last post shows that he died and
was buried there on the 6th of November, 1758.*

Father Luke Collet, a Canadian by birth, was ordained at
Quebec on the 24th of February, 1753, and after remaining in
his convent till 1754, was sent to the for+ in the valley of the
Ohio.f These Fathers belonged to the reform of the Franciscan

* In Ilia biographical notices of the Canadian cler^cry, the late Mr. Nois-
eux, Vicnr-gcneral of Quebec, says that Father I •'•s Baron died in Acadia
at the close of September, 1755, while the regi.stn ,)f the Fort St. Frederic
states officially that he died in November, 1758. Thi^ ingle fact shows how
carefnl writer.'^ should be in adopting tiie statcme i^s of Mr. Noisenx, which
ho never intended should be made public, and was prevented by death from
correcting. Unfortunately they were atler his death put forward as extreme-
ly accurate, and have led to many errors.

+ Father Collet is placed by Mr. Noiseux at Chaleur Bay at the very mo-
ment when wu ftnd him at Fort Dnquesne. Th ■■ biographer adds that he
was taken there by the English in 1760 and carried to England. On being
B6t at liberty ii November. 1760, he passed over t.» Trance and never return-
ed to Canadfi, What truth there may be in this we know not, but he was
certainly in Illinois. We arc indebted for extracts from the Kegisters to our
venerable frnnd, the Hon. Jacques Viger, first Mayor of Montreil, Chevalier
of the order of St. Gregory, whose accuracy is pro rbial in Canada, and 1o
'whose aid w have frequently had recourse, and as we gratefully acknow-
ledge, not ill vain.

278

THE CATHOLIC CHUliCH

order call (;d Rocollects, the I."- r of wLoni arrived ii; Canada in
1616, with Samuel ('bjimiil dii. Sent back to Franco in 16 ;!)

on the capture of vouchee by th« Englisli, they returned only in
1670, and from that time never left Canada; but as the Enghsh
government seized their property and prevented their receiving
novices, tlieir order is now extinct in that province, the last sur-
vivor, a lay brother, having died a few years ago.*

It may easily be imagined that amid the privations ol a fron-
tier post, and the vicissitudes of war, the Recollects of Fort Du-
quesne and Fort Machault, could make no eflbrt to preach the
Gospel to the Indians by whom they were surrounded : Dela-
wares, among whom the Moravians were beginning to toil, Sene-
cas, whom the Jesuits had so long taught ; if they ministered to
any it was to the wandering Catholic Huron from Sandusky, or
Miami from St. Josei)h's, the men whom Beaujeu led to victory
over the disciplined troops of Bi'addock. Their functions were
those of military chaplains : and when they disappeared with the
regiments of France, thivi y years rolled by without the cross re-
appearing in Western I'l'iiasilvania; but in 1799 a young priest
took up his abode aiLM?;;^ tb< most rugged summits of the Allc-
ghanies : there he built vli arches, founded villages, attracted a
Catholic population, by advantageous grants of laud, and the
superior spiritual advantages enjoyed at Loretto ; and after an
apostolic career of foily-onc years, after expending $150,000 of
his fortune in this admirable work, he died, leaving ten thousand
Catholics in the mountains, where he had found only twelve
families. This holy priest, who in his Inimility called himself
the Rev. Mr. Smith, deserves to be known by his true name, and

<).
dc

* The Friars Minors of the Strict Observance, called in France Recollects,
are a reform of the Frunciscaus. It began in Spain in 1584, and tlieir first
establishment in Paris dates from IfiOo. Henry IV., Louis XIlL,nnd Louift
XIV. greatly favored these zealous religious. Ikhjot^ Histoire des Ordres
religieux ';Ed. Migne) ill. :];)2.

IN tup: united states.

270

I
I

poiident of Vol-
ises tho Mus-

wo do not hesitate to relate at some length his history, one of tiio
most edifying which tho Church in tho United States presents.
Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin was born at the Hague, on the
22d of D<'''<'niber, 1770. His father was then Russian ambassa-
dor in Hollaud, and before being intrusted with that embassy,
had been in the same capacity in laris, w1umv», during his long
stay, he had become intimately connect( h Voltaire and

Diderot, whose perfidious praises flattered tin .. v of tho Rus-
sian prince. At a later date we find him
taire, and in many of his letters the phil",- )|.
covite noble for his devotf'duess to science, ai.u al ne all for his
spirit of toleration. This was tho period when Voltaire, as bad a
Frenchman as he was a man, wrote to the empress that he
regretted that he was not a Russian. The mother of our mis-
sionary, Amelia, Countess of 8chmettau, Princess Gallitziu, be-
longed to a great German family. She was daughter of Countess
RnfFert and of one of Frederick the Great's favorites, Marshal
Count Schmettau. She had two brothers, distinguished in the
Prussian army, one of them having been killed at the battle of
Jena. The Princess Amelia was brought up a Catholic, and in
early childhood showed much piety, but at the age of nine, as
she herself said, was diverted from devotion by the oharnis of
flattery. She then fell into the hands of in infidel tutor, who
made it a point to extinguish the faith in tne heart of his pupil,
and her marriage with Prince Gallitzin tended still more to
plunge her into incredulity. Diderot, at Paris, endeavored to
dazzle her by the sophisms of his system of atheism ; but the
perusal of infidel works only excited disquiet as to the state of
her conscience, and soon after the birth of her son, she resolved
to retire to MunsLev and live in solitude and reflection. In 1783
God, in His mercy, sent her a serious illness. Visited by the
holy priest, Bernard Overberg, she would not, from human pride,
seem to fear death, but promiwsed, in cnse she recovered her health,

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280

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

to study Christianity seriously. On her recovery she kept her
word. She was under instruction three years, and at last, on the
28th of August, 1786, made her first communion. Directed in
the ways of piety by the Abbot of Furstenberg, and by Father
Overberg, she spent the rest of her days in prayer, in struggles
against self-will, and in regret over her past life.*

Her son, young Demetrius, was carefully brought up aloof
from every religious idea. The prince surrounded him with
infidel philosophers, and watched with argus eyes lest any priest
or minister should approach the future heir of his titles and for-
tune. He learned all but what it was essential to know, and it
would naturally be expected that a young man of accomplished
education in the eyes of the world, would seek only to rush
madly on the paths of honors and pleasure. But all the father's
precautions could not exclude grace from on high ; and Prince
Gallitzin thus recounts his astonishing conversion :

" I lived during fifteen years in a Catholic country, under a
Catholic government, where both the spiritual and temporal
power were united in the same person — the reigning prince in
that country was our archbishop. During a great part of that
time I was not a member of the Catholic Church , an intimacy
which existed between our family and a certain French philoso-
pher, had produced contempt for revealed religion. Raised in
prejudices against revelation, I felt every disposition to ridicule
those very principles and practices which I have adopted since.
Particular care, too, was taken not to permit any clergyman to
come near me. Thanks be to the God of infinite mercy, the
clouds of infidelity were dispersed, and revelation adopted in our
family. I soon felt convinced of the necessity of investigating
the different religious systems, in order to find the true one.
Although I was born a member of the Greek Church, and al-

Her life has been written by Katerkamp.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

281

though all my male relations, without any exception, were either
Greeks or Protestants, yet did I resolve to embrace that religion
only which upon impartial inquiry should appear to me to be
the pure religion of Jesus Christ. My choice fell upon the
Catholic Church, and at the age of about seventeen I became a
member of that Church."*

This conversion did not at first divert young Demetrius from
the military career which his father wished him to embrace. In
1792 he was aid-de-camp to the Austrian general, Van Lilien,
who commanded an army in Brabant, at the opening of the first
campaign against France. But the sudden death of the Emperor
Leopold, and the assassination of the King of Sweden, an act
considered as the work of the Jacobins, induced Austria and
Prussia to dismiss all foreigners from their armies. The young
prince being thus deprived of his military position, his father
advised him to travel to finish his education, and he arrived in
the United States in 1Y92, accompanied by a young German
missionary, the Rev. Mr. Bi-osius, his tutor. At the sight of the
spiritual destitution which the Catholics in America suflFered, he
felt a vocation to the ecclesiastical state, and on the 5th of No-
vember, 1*792 entered the Sulpitian Seminary recently founded at
Baltimore. Under the direction of those excellent professors, the
abbes Nagot, Gamier, and Tessier, Gallitzin made rapid progress
in piety and ecclesiastical learning, and on the 18th of March,
1795, received the priesthood at the hands of the v^^nerable
Bishop Carroll.

He was the second priest ordained in the United States, and
the first who received all orders in this country. For the first

* Discourse on the life and virtues of the Eev. Demetrius Augustine Gal-
litzin. Loretto, 1848. The eloquent author kindly sent us his discourse,
adding extensive notes, from which chiefly we have drawn the edifying
tales as to the noble Russian prince, become an humble minister of Jesua
Christ. The sketch of Gallitzin, by the Rev. C. C. Piae, D.D., has also been
of great service. It appeared in the Biographical Armual, 1841.

282

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Bishop of Baltimore he ever presented the most lively admiration
and most tender affection : " The nearer we approach Archbishop
Carroll in our pastoral conduct," he used to say, " the nearer we
approach perfection."

The young priest would have preferred not to leave his holy
and studious retreat, the Seminary of Baltimore, and with this
object obtained admission among the members of the congrega-
tion of St. Sulpice. But Bishop Carroll, though he granted him
the necessary permission, could not dispense with the Rev. Mr.
Gallitzin's services in the labors of the mission, and the latter
soon seeing that his new duties were incompatible with those of
a Sulpitian, separated with regret from a society for which he
ever professed the deepest veneration. The first mission assigned
to him was that of Ccnewago, where there existed already a
flourishing church under Father Pellentz. From this central
point the Rev. Mr. Gallitzin served towns and cities to a consid-
erable distance ' Taneytown, Pipe Creek, Hagerstown, and Cum-
berland in Maiyland; Chambersburg, Path and Shade Valley,
Huntington and the Alleghany mountains in Pennsylvania. But
experience ere long convinced hira that he would realize more
good by concentrating his efforts on a spot where he could
establish a Catholic colony, and he selected for his domain th'
uninhabited and uncultivated regions of the Alleghanies, where he
settled permanently in 1*799. He found in the mountains only a
dozen Catholics scattered here and there amid the rocks and
woods. He first resided on a farm which the Magaire family
had generously given for the service of the Church. There he
built a log chapel, thirty feet long, which long suflSced for the
few Catholics of that part. In order to attract emigration around
him he bought vast tracts of land, which he sold in farms at a
low rate, or even gave to the poor, relying on his patrimony to
meet his many engagements. But the Emperor of Russia could
not pardon the son of Prince Alexander Gallitzin for becoming a

■*■

IN THE UNITED STATES.

283

Catholic priest, and in 1808 the, noble missionary received from
a friend in Europe a letter, saying :

" The question of your rights and those of the princess, your
sister, as to your Other's property in Russia has been examined
by the Senate of St. Petersburg, and it has been decided that by
reason of your Catholic faith, and your ecclesiastical profession,
you cannot be admitted to a share of your late father's property.
Your sister is consequently sole heiress of the property, and is
soon to be put in possession of it. The Council of State has con-
firmed the decision of the Senate, and the emperor by his sanc-
tion has given it force of law."

The Princess Anne Gallitzin, long promised her brother to
restore him his share, to which she acknowledged that she had no
lawful right ; she even sent on various occasions large sums to
the missionary, who employed them in meeting his engagements
and in relieving the poor. But in the whole it amounted to but
a small part of the revenues to which he was entitled, and when
the princess married a Prince of Salm, she said no more about
restituting. The missionary thus lost all his patrimony, but
offered the sacrifice to God with the most perfect resignation ; if
he regretted the wealth, it was only for the poor and for the
Church, not for himself. As his panegyrist has well said, " if he
had had a heart of gold he would have given it to the unfortu-
nate." The Rev. Demetrius Gallitzin was therefore not only the
zealous pastor of his flock, he was also its father and benefactor,
and never consented to leave it. Imposing on himself a thou-
sand austerities, lodged in an humble cabin, dressed in coarse
clothes, incessantly traveUing from point to point to bear the
consolations of religion through the mountains. Father Gallitzin
found time also to study, and successively composed several con-
ti'oversial works ; " Defence of Catholic Principles," a " Letter to
a Protestant Friend," and an " Appeal to the Protestant Public,"
in reply to a Protestant minister of Huntington, who had pas-

284:

n ■

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

firming Catholiot f„ tlJZ' '" """'"'"S Pmoslants or col

-able Mr. G„llit.i„ died t" 6t ft" '"'^ '^"^''- "'" «""
"'"ago which he had f„„„de '„ l"' *'"^' ''*"' '" ^-«o. »
«>o Very Rev. Thomas Ji°°j ' , ""^ ■"'"""''■''^- His friend,
SCO of Natche. i„ Is" ^mT^ '•"^ "^^ ^^'™g«'
a^ Alleghanie, and i,. '.he 1:^,^" ^ l^;* "^ "^ ^-'or of
nounced a funeral oration in St m\ ,!''P'«"'«'. "ir, ho pro-
;on of the hod, of the Jin^dP^r";. "''"'•,''' '"^ '"'-'-
f"I monument which the piety of ht "' """'"' '^' ''^'"'«-

liis memory * '^^'^ "* '"^ parishioners had raised to

The renown of Prince f!ol?;i • , ■
ie acldeved. spread far d^:r::/;*"^ '"' °' ^^ -■"■-
«f or the Episcopal In tl ^0' Bi,?".?"' '""^"P"''™
"> 825 it wa, resolved to er c 1 1 . 2? ''''«''' « «" 'ha'
»"bourg wrote to Bishon ZL 1 ^''''^'"«' ""^ bishop
"Should yon jndge it oZrtane J" w^ ''"" "' ^--'-:
Rttshurg, embraeh.g thfCtol h"^ ^ """™ "^ " «*« «'
and a portion of vlgiuuTl' T'""' ™ "« Alleghany
^ould propose Princf 2,f; '' "'* y°"- * * * i
Maguire as'second. /tUnt t^t T °" ''" «''' »^ *!
consequence of his long and If'u ^ ^"^ *" ^^ f"™". «
las effected in those quart „ "^d I '"'' '"' ""' go-"! io
establishment, which Inld ^v t nttft "t/''^ "'"""'^ '^ '"««
On h>s side, Bishop Kenricl- ^ ^ " "ow bishopric."t
J^j^^^^l^MhenCoadjutor of Philadelphia

#
I

<»

IN THE UNITED STATES.

285

and as such happy enough to count Prince Gallitzin among his
priests, wrote of him on the 14th of January, 1834 : " Loretto,
in Cambria county, is the residence of the celebrated missionary,
Prince Gallitzin, and a very numerous population. It is more
than thirty years since that venerable man chose the summit of
the Alleghanies as his retreat, or rather as the centre of his mis-
sion ; thence he went from time to time, to bear the succore of
religion to the Catholics scattered over an immense territory,
where five priests are now occupied. The number of the faithful
at his arrival was very trifling in Cambria county ; his persever-
ance, in spite of all the difiiculties with which he had to contend,
was orov/ned with heavenly benedictions. The mountains have
become fertile and the forests flourishing. Many Protestants have
followed his example, renouncing the errors of the sects in which
they had been brought up ; and Catholics came from all sides to
commit themselves to the paternal care of a priest whose pure
and humble life excites them to the exercise of the evangelical
virtues."*

The Catholics of Cambria still keep fresh the memory of their
princely missionary, and have given the name of Gallitzin to a
village which has already a church, dedicated to St. Patrick.
They are particularly distinguished by their faith and patriarchal
manners ; and gave a striking proof lately in the triumphal pro-
cession with which they welcomed Monseigneur Bedini, the Apos-
tolic Nuncio. In a letter which his Excellency addressed to us

* The Gallitzin family has also had a martyr to the Faith. According to
a family tradition, as stated by Madame Gallitzin to Bishop O'Connor, one of
their ancestors became a Catholic in the time of Catharine II., and was put to
death in punishment for his change of faith, by being required to have a
palace of ice built on the Neva, and to go through the form of marrying an
old woman. The whole thing passed as a joke, but the prince was taken to
the bridal chamber, where the bride of the play, aided by satellites, held him
on a bed of ice till he expired. The matter was then hushed up as a joke,
but it was known to have been the design of the empress to take him off,
yet deprive him rf the honor of martyrdom.

f.;l

286

THE CATilOUc ctlVROS

V, notified by i,,e Ai,„»,o 2 o P ^"^ T'"^''' ™^ vil.

'""owed by .on,e fifty carri " , U "^ """^ »" «--, aod
joyously „o„„d thoao loft;i „„^ ' : r^f"' oortege, defiling

everywhere, and e-spccially a 1!?, "f "^ ' ^^ ''''ot is, tha.
;^ "bounded, and „as 4hnT^',V"J "' ""' ^'"''olies
fy>»g manner. The demonstXu " u """' '"'<' ""«' ^Oi-
beautiful or more brilliant IT • '^ ""' '""''> been more
'eoeived in Canada." ^ "'"' ''""•'^^'^ »« of the wcloori

Tie father of our hr,] • •
«ti« unreconoiied to theMoTrr "'I-'' """"""'^^ '- '808,
- e a pion, Catholie, whi e hi Cs'T "T " P"«' -^ h'
embutered the last days of tb. "*'" "^ Diderot. Ue

o--g her son's eonCln 's^T "^^o-bing her wUh
t^nce, and expired in 1808 fo,.,,« ! °''! "" "'* Christian pa-
'he dying. Her exampl ^^ fat "; 1 "" '"^ -"-'»«ons'of
e«ed a salutary i„fl„e„e^ on he f , '^ '°"' ''°"^"'=^ oxer-
tbe young Prinee Alexander olv '' ?" "' "'* »^P''«»,
« St. Petersburg, in 1814 at!h!' ^T'^ '*"'™^ " ^ 'holio
P-Pil of the Jesl, and this llr^' """• ^^ ''^ ^o" a
» Kussia, and so imitated hisTnTlrr "'""" "«-'»»
«» emperor, that the Soeietv oft '°""='' "f Worship to

*om Russia. Another luntj" "" '■"^''-te'y banished
«».*olie in Eussia, under FthtrT' ^'""'^^ •>-»« »
Pnocess E&abeth Gallitzin h ^ "' ^'' '"=■' daughter

->'-, entered the comrukit 7th t'^"''""'' ''" ^^^^

ty ot the Sacred Heart, at Paris.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

287

After a stay at Rome, she was sent to the United States in 1840,
where she founded four houses of her order, and died of the yel-
low fever in Louisiana, at the ago of 47, on the 8th of December,
1843.

These illustrious examples of return to unity, are not the only
ones which the Russian nobility have given within the last sixty
years. Many families have embraced Catholicity, and form a
society no less agreeable than distinguished at Rome and Paris,
the intolerance of the Czar forcing them into exile to enjoy the
free exercise of their religion. These conversions would be far
more numerous, but for the cruel persecutions exercised by the
Greek schism. The wounded Russians in the Crimea gladly
confessed to the French chaplains, and the prisoners of Bomar-
8und communicate at the hands of Polish missionaries sent to
evangelize them. These poor people are full of faith ; they
know nothing of the subtleties of Photius, and would cheerfully
return to the true faith, if ambition, pride, and policy did not
keep the Muscovite princes out of the Divine Unity of the Church.

The life of Prince Demetrius Gallitzin is little known in
Europe, or even in America, and in hopes of soon seeing an
extended memoir, we have dwelt at some length on the history
of the Pastor of the Alleghanies. It was in the design of Provi-
dence that all nations of Europe should furnish their contingent
of missionaries to the United States, and Russia has given v.:
scions of one of her most ancient families, to preach the Gospel
and expound the Catechism to the republicans of the New
"World, and the tawny denizens of their Western prairies.

288

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

CHATTER XIX.

DIOOESK OP PITTSBURG DIOCESE OP ERIK — (1792-1856).

The Abb« Flaget at Pittsburg— The Rev. F. X. O'Brien and Charles B. Maguire— The
Poor Clares — The Colony of Asylum— The Chevalier John Keating— Colony of Har-
man Bottom — Episcopate of the Bight Rev. Dr. O'Connor— Sisters of Mercy— The
Brothers of the Presentation— The Franciscan Brothers— The Bonedictines— Passion-
iats — Early missions at Erie — Bishop Flaget — The present state of the diocese— The
Benedictine Nuns— Retrospect.

We have seen that the Recollects of France were the first
priests who, a century since, offered the holy sacrifice in the fort
around which the vast city of Pittsburg has gathered. After
them, too, a French priest is the first whom we find exercising
the ministry at Pittsburg. In the month of May, 1*792, the
Abb6 Benedict Joseph Flaget, the future Bishop of Bardstown
and Louisville, journeying from Baltimore to Vincennes, the sta-
tion which Bishop Carroll had assigned him, was forced to wait
six months at Pittsburg, the waters of the Ohio being so low as
to render navigation impossible. During this forced stay, the
young missionai-y was not idle. He resided with a descendant
of French Huguenots, who had married an American Protestant
lady, but who both received the Abb6 Flaget very cordially.
The latter said Mass daily in their house ; and then devoted him-
self to the religioas instruction of sc me French or Canadian set-
tlers and the Catholic soldiers. Fort Pitt, in Pittsburg, was then
the head-quarters of General Wayne, about to lead his famous
expedition against the Indians of the Northwest. The general
cordially welcomed Mr. Flaget, who presented him a letter of in-
troduction from Bishop Carroll, and the young priest endeared

,r'v.

IN TIIK INITEIJ STATES.

289

-1856).

Magulre— The
olony of Har-
' Mercy— Tl) a
nes— Passion-
diocese— Tha

e the first
in the fort
ed. After
exercising
1792, the
Bardstown
8, the sta-
d to wait
80 low as
stay, the
escendant
i^rotestant
cordially,
oted him-
adian set-
was then
is famous
le general
iter of in-
endeared

himsolf to all by his charitablo caro of the garrison during the
ravages cauMod by the 8iuall-pux among the troops. In another
circunistauco, too, he displayed a truly apostolic zeal, when four
deserters who had been retaken were condemned to death by
court-martial. Two of these soldiers were Catholics, another a
Protestant, the fourth a French infidel. Mr. Flaget visited them
in prison, and though he spoke but little English, he had the
consolation of converting the l*rotestant, and administering the
sacraments to the two Catholics. As to the Frenchman, ho ob-
stinately refused all the succors of religion ; and the grief which
the missionary expressed at the thought of the impenitence of his
eouutryuian, induced General Wayne to grant him the pardon of
the culprit.*

In 1796, 13utler county, lying north of Pittsburg, was declared
by government open to colonization ; and Iiish Catholics from
Youngstown immediately began to settle there, and others swelled
the population of Pittsburg. A mission was founded at Sugar
Creek, and was attended, it is believed, by Father C. Whelan.
In the first years of this century, the Rev. F. X. O'Brien had the
centre of this mission, at Brownsville, forty miles south of Pitts-
burg, which latter city he visited every month, to say Mass for
the few Catholics who gathered around him in a private room.
About 1807, however, the Rev. Mr. O'Brien made Pittsburg his
residence, and in the following year erected St. Patrick's Church,
so apparently large for the wants of the faithful, that he was long
annoyed with reproaches of extravagance. Yet it was only fore-
sight ; and since then, although additions have nearly doubled
the church in size, it is not,f with the eleven other churches or
chapels that rise in various parts of the city, sufficient for the

* Bishop Spalding, Life, &c., of Bishop Flagot, p. 80.

+ The present St. Patrick's is not on the site of the old one, which was
burnt in 1854, as the place had become unfit for a church from the railroadti
coneentratiug iu the immediate neighborhood.

290

THE CATHOLIC CIirUCH

Catholic, populiition of tlio opiscopnl Soo of Pittsburg. Tho Rev.
Mr. O'Brion zoaluiwly discluirgod the functions of pastor of St.
Patrick's till March, 1820. At that epoch ho retired to Mary-
laud, his native State, and, except a short stay at Couewago,
never left, and died some years after, it would seem, at An-
napolis.

Tho llov. F. X. O'Brien was succeeded at Pittsburg by Father
Charles B. Maguiro, an Irish Franciscan, who had studied at
St. Isidore's Convent, Rome. IIo was even a professor there,
when the French invasion compelled him to retire to Germany,
where he received from the royal family of Bourbon, then exiled
from France, many favors and marks of respect. IIo came to
the United States about 1812, and the mission of Westmoreland
county, comprising Latrobe and Youngstown, was first assigned
to him. I'here Father Brouwer had taken up his abode in 1780 ;
and this cradle of Catholicity in the diocese of Pittsburg has
become, since 1846, the cradle of the Benedictine Order in the
United States. Father Maguiro, who baptized most of the Cath-
olics of this generation at Pittsburg, was full of ambition for
God's glory. St. Patrick's Church, even with its additions, did
not seem, in his eyes, large enough for the present and future of
his congregation. On a hill in Grand-street he resolved to build
a cathedral, long before there was any mention of having a bish-
op at Pittsburg ; and he undertook, with rare energy, tho con-
struction of St. Paul's Church. Yet he did not live to see it
consecrated. This took place in 1834, and in July of the pre-
ceding year, Father Maguire had died at Pittsburg. The Rev.
John O'Reilly, who had been Father Maguire's assistant from
1831, succeeded him in his pastoral charge, and was replaced in
1844 by the Rev. Michael O'Connor, now Bishop of Pittsburg.

The Rt. Rev. F. P. Kenrick, the Coadjutor of Philadelphia,
wrote, on the 14th of January, 1834 :

" Pittsburg, a considerable city, at the other extremity of Penn-

IN' TlIK UNITED STATES.

291

. Tho Rcr.

lastor of St.

!cl to Maiy-

Couewago,

icm, at Au-

g by Father
1 studied at
fessor there,
bo Germany,
, then exiled
[lo came to
'estmoieland
irst assigned
)de in 1789;
'ittsburg has
)rder in the
of the Cuth-
imbition for
dditions, did
md future of
ved to build
ving a bish-
^y, the con-
e to see it
of the pre-
The Rev.
istant from
replaced in
Pittsburg,
hiladelphia,

ity of Penn-

=Sf.

Rylvania, ainid u poitulation of twenty thousand noiils, contain.'*,
according to a niudfrato computation, f»)iw or five thouHand
Catholics. Tims far, wo have had only one church there, St.
Patrick's: but we lioue soon to have another, St. I'aul'.s, a vast

cditice, far advanced, and of nuignificent construction. It is now
five years since this new church was begun ; but want of pecu-
niary resources h:is retarded its completion. The pastor of St.
Patrick's, Mr. John O'Reilly, who lias already built three churches
at Newry, Huntington, and IV'llefonte, is now using every effort
to complete St. Patrick*» at IMttsburg. The Ab])6 Mas(iuelet, an
Alsacian, aids him in the functions of tho holy ministry, princi-
pally by taking the cuarge of tho Germans, who are very nume-
rous, and of some Fiench who reside there. Near I'ittsburg, tho
Poor Clares have a convent, containing fourteen religious, under
the spiritual direction of Father Van do Wcjer, a Iklgian re-
ligious of the Order of St. Dominic*

This monastery, which was the first established religious com-
munity in that part of Pennsylvania, had been founded aV)out
1828 at Alleghenytown, in the neigh'oorhood of I'ittsburg. Sister
Frances Van do Vogel, belonging to a wealthy Flemish family,
arrived from Belg'um in Pennsylvania with one of her compan-
ions, and purchased witii her own means the property on whieh
the convent waa built. Father Maguiro took a great interest in
this foundation, and encouraged it by his influence and counsels.
About 1830, the Poor Clares established another house at Green
Bay, in the present State of Wisconsin ; but neither house ac-
quired stability, and after difficulties of jurisdiction with Dr.
Res6, Bishop of Detroit, Madame Van de Vogel, who claimed to bo.
sole Superior of the Order, became discouraged, and sold tho

♦ AnnAlca do la Propagation de la Fol, viii. 215. Tho Kev. Fran(;oi9
Miaquel^t removed iu 1817 to tho diocese of Cincinnati, and W!i« stationed
ftt St. Martia's, near yayetteville. His name does not appear after 1840, nor
jfatbir Van do Wejer's after 1835.

-f

292

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

property in both places. Some of the religious returned to Bel-
gium, others entered various communities, and Madame Van de
Vogel retired to Rome. Thus, the Sisters of St. Clare failed in
Pennsylvania and in Wisconsin, as they had failed in George-
town in the last century ; and the Almighty refused them that
vitality, with which so many other communities in the United
States show themselves to have been gifted.

In the letter already cited. Bishop Kenrick gives other inter-
esting details as to the religious state of Catholics in Western
Pennsylvania. " On my visit to St. Peter's, Brownsville, a little
village on the Monongahela river, I was much edified at the joy
with which a pious French -sn idow, residing in the neighborhood,
came, with her children, to approach the sacraments, which she
■•had been debarred fiom for years, in consequence of not meeting
a priest who understood her language. The faithful of this mis-
sion are to be pitied, being able only four times a year to enjoy
the presence of a priest, the pastor of Blairsville, Rev. James
Ambrose Stillinger, a young American priest, who visits them
thus till I can place a pastor here.* The French families in
Potter county have not even this consolation, for it is only at
rare intervals that the pastor of All Saints, Lewistown, who has
charge of this mission, and those of Clearfield and Bellefonte,f
can take the long journey necessary to visit them. He travels
sixty miles every month to go to Clearfield, where there are many
French ; but those in Potter county are still farther off."

This French immigiation, to the importance of which, in
Pennsylvania, Bishop Kenrick, in several instances, alludes, took
place at diiferent epochs ; but the principal attempts at coloni-
zation were induced by the Reign of Terror, which drove from
France its noblest and best families. On perusing the travels of

* He is still pastor of Blairsville.

t These are still in the diocese of Philadelphia.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

293

urned to Bel-
lame Van de
are failed in
i in George-
ed them that
1 the United

1 other inter-

I in Western

iville, a little

id at the joy

eighborhood,

s, which she

not meeting

of this mis-

3ar to enjoy

Rev. James

visits them

families in

is only at

n, who has

Bellefonte,f

He travels

'e are many

bff."

which, in

hides, took

s at coloni-

cliove from

3 travels of

•1

-1

the Duke of Larochefoucauld-Liancourt, in the interior of the
United States, in ll95, VOQ, and ll9l* we are surprised at
the number of French whom he finds at every step, even to the
very backwoods, then inhabited by the Indians. In another
portion of this history, we have shown how the descendants of
the French now form one of the elements of the Catholic popu-
lation of the United States. Still, many families, cut off from
all religious aid, unhappily saw the faith expire in their children;
and what is more sad, other families, placed in the most advan-
tageous positions, made no effort to secure their offspring from
Protestantism. In 1794, thirty families of French officers and
nobility founded the Colony of Asylum, near Towanda, in Brad-
ford county. Some came from Paris, others from St. Domingo,
and a number of mechanics and negroes followed them to their
new abode. They were also attended by several priests — the
Abbe de Bec-de-Lievre, formerly a canon in Brittany ; the x\bbe
Carles, canon of Quercy ; the Abbe de Sevigny, Archdeacon of
Toul ; and the Abbe Fromentin, of Etampes. Mr. Nores, a grad-
uate of the Holy Chapel, and possessor of a small prioiy, al-
though not in orders, was another of the party. But these
ecclesiastics were not of the stamp of the virtuous Sulpitians,
who at the same time offered their services to Bishop Carroll,
and hastened to preach the Gospel wherever that prelate sent
them, whether to Boston, Vincennes, Kentucky, or other parts of
his vast diocese. The Abbes of Asylum never asked the bishop
for faculties to exercise the ministry in America ; and thinking
only of the goods of this world, became grocers or farmers. In
a spot which contained four priests. Mass was never offei'cd.
They never even thought of arranging a place for a chapel,
where the settlers might meet morning and evening, to raise up

* Annates de la Propagation de la Foi, viii. 213. Voyage dans lea Etals-
Unis d'Amcriquc tait en 1795, 1796, ot 1797, par La Rochoibucauld-Liuucourt.
Paris, An. vii.

294

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

V
k

scl

their hearts to God. No worship was practised among these
brilliant officers, their companions and children ; and this shows
how far the philosophy of Voltaire had spread its ravages in the
hearts of families, and even in the sanctuary. As soon as the
nobles and clergy could return to France, the more influential of
the colonists of Asylum hastened to leave America. There re-
mained in Bradford county only the farmers and mechanics ;
and among the descendants of these at the present day, there is
not a single Catholic — a fatal example of the lot which awaits
the settlers who are remote from true pastors, and absorbed in
the interests of the present life.

Yet we are deceived : the Colony of Asylum had one priest
who soon awoke to a feeling of the awful character with which
he was invested. The Rev. Mr. Carles proceeded to Savannah,
and devoting himself to the ministry, labored among the Catho-
lics of Georgia till after the restoration of the Bourbons, when
he returned to France, and became Vicar-general of Bordeaux,
under Cardinal Cheverus, whom he preceded a few days to the
tomb, and whose death materially hastened that of the saintly
archbishop.*

The Colony of Asylum also endowed Pennsylvania with an
excellent Catholic family, whose virtue has been honorably per-
petuated ; and an account of the patriarch of St. Mary's Church,

* As to Dr. Carles, see Bishop England's Works, iii. 252-4, Hamon ; Life
of Cardinal Clioverus (translated by Walsli), p. 199, where ho is styled a
most venerable and exemplary priest, whom the cardinal had brought with
him from Montauban. Dr. Carles fell dead as he was leaving the altar after
High Mass, on Easter Sunday, 1834. Two more of tlie priests at the Asy-
lum returned lo France ; but one of them, Mr. Fromentin, remained, mar-
ried, and removing to Louisiana, became Clerk of tlie Legislature. As such,
he was a leader in the dispute with General Jackson, which led to the closing
of the sessions of that body. He died of yellow fever, which he had braved.
The principal families at Asylum, in 1795, were Messrs. De Noailles, Do
Blacon, De Montule, D'Andelot, De Beanlieu, De la Eoue, De Vilaine, Mes-
dnmes D'Antrepont, De Sybert, De Maulde, De Bercy. Du Petit Tliouars, the
future hero of the Tonnant at Aboukir, was also at Asylum in 1795.

IX 'I'' UNITED STATES.

295

among tliese
id this shows
■avages in the
s soon as tho
1 influential of
a. There re-
i mechanics ;
t dav, there is
which awaits
d absorbed in

lad one priest
:er with which

to Savannah,

)ng the Catho-

ourbons, when

of Bordeaux,

w days to the

of the saintly

vania with an
honorably per-
^lary's Church,

-4, Hamon ; Life
re lio is styled a
lad brought with
ng the altar after
ricsts at the Asy-
, remained, mar-
latiire. As such,
led to the closing
;h he had braved.
De NoaJlles, Do
De Vilaine, Mes-
Petit Thouars, tho
I in 1795.

riiiladc'lphia, deserves a p'uce from our pen. John Keating,
born in Ireland, on the 19th of September, 1759, is the grand-
son of Jeftrey Keating, who raised a company of horse, during
the siege of Limerick, and having subsequently retired to France
with King James's army, distinguished himself in Spain and
Italy, under Marshal Catinat. Valentine, Baron Keating, the son
of Jeffrey, obtained permission to return to Ireland, but finding
the penal laws intolerable, went back to France, and had his
children educated at the Jesuit college, Poitiers. John Keating
and his three brothers entered as officers in the Irish regiment
of Walsh-Serraut, in the Fi'ench service. At the period of our
revolution, this regiment was sent to the West Indies, then to
Pondicherry and Mauritius; and at the breaking out of the
French revolution, was in St. Domingo. "There," says the
Duke do la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, " John Keating, having the
confidence of all parties, and having refused the most seductive
offers of the Commissioners of the Convention, preferred to re-
tire poor to America, rather than remain rich and in honor at
St. Domingo, by violating his first oath. A man of a character
at once severe and mild, of distinguished merit, rare intelligence,
uncommon virtue, and unexampled disinterestedness, * * *
we may say that the confidence which his great intelligence and
virtue inspire, make it more easy for him than for others to ter-
minate a difficult affair."*

Captain John Keating, Chevalier of St. Louis, was one of the
founders and organizers of Asylum ; but when his friends returned
to France he retired to Philadelphia, where he has since edified
whole generations by his piety and virtues. Although moi'e than
ninety-six years of ago, he continues to occupy every Sunday his
wonted place in St. Mary's, and enjoys universal esteem through-
out the city. His daughter, left a widow, resolved to enter a

* Voyage de la Rochefoucauld, i. 159.
p. 187.

See Irish at Home and Abroad,

III

296

THE CATnOLIC CHURCH

convent as soon as her cbiMren were old enoiigli to take charge
of their grandfather, and she is now Superioress of the Visitation
at Frederick.

If the Asyhim gave in general results so afflicting to rehgion,
it is consoling to see other colonies flourishing under quite differ-
ent conditions. In 1832, the Rev. Thomas Heydcn proposed to
Mr. Ridelmoser, a wealthy German Catholic in Baltimore, to
draw Catholics to his lands, on condition that a church should be
built and the ground reserved for Catholic settlers. Mr. Ridel-
moser, who possessed extensive tracts in Bedford county, imme-
diately built a church at Herman Bottom, furnished it with
vestments and plate, built a rectory, reserved a hundred acres of
excellent land for the support of a pastor, and allotted sixty moro
for the support of a school. The Rev. Mr. Heyden, on liis fide,
induced Catholic families to come and settle at Herman Bottom.
The church was consecrated on the 1st of January, 1826; one
hundred and fifty families were installed in the neighborhood,
and assure their children the competence which agriculture gives
in America, while, at the same time, they bring them up in the
faith of their fathers and the practice of religion. It was the
success of the scheme of Prince Gallitzin which induced Dr.
Heyden to attempt an enterprise of a similar character in Bedford
county, and Ave see that he succeeded as his venerable friend had
done at Loretto.

We have said that Bishop Kenrick in 1834 noted the existence
of a large German population at Pittsburg. To take care of the
Catholics of that nation, some Redemptorist Fathers arrived at
Pittsbufg in 1839, and immediately began the erection of the
Church of St. Philomena. Two years previous, four Sisters of
Charity from Emmetsburg opened a school at Pittsburg, and
soon took charge of an orphan asylum.* But it is chiefly since

* They retired in 1845 from the diocese of Pittsburg, and the Sisters of
Mercy have succeeded them at St. Paul's Asylum.

ajov'

IN THE UNITED STATES.

297

take charge

be Visitation

J to religion,
quite difFer-
proposed to
altimore, to
h sliould be

Mr. Ridel-
inty, imme-
led it with
'ed acres of

sixty moro
jn liis fide,
an Bottom.
1826; one

hborhood,
Iture gives

up in tlie

It was the
duced Dr.
in Bedford
friend had

existence
ire of the
irrived at
n of the
Sisters of
nrg, and
iHy since

Sisters of

1843, when Dr. O'Connor, instead of being pastor, became Bishop
of Pittsburg, that, nnder the influence of his zeal, the new diocese
saw churches, convents, and monasteries rise on all sides, so that
it is now one of the best endowed in the United States in the re-
sources of its clergy and the number of its religious communities.
When Bishop O'Connor was returning from Rome after his conse-
cralion, he passed through Ireland, and induced a colony of Sisters
of Mercy to come to Pittsburg. This was the first foundation of
this venerable Order in the United States; but since 1843 it has
sti'uck such deep roots, that in 1855 there are not less than
eighty-four Sisters of Mercy in the diocese of Pittsburg alone.
They have under their direction the Mercy Hospital in the epis-
copal city, a House of Industry at Alleghany, four boarding
schools at Latrobe, Loretto, Hollidaysburg, and Pittsburg, two
orphan asylums, and several free-schools, frequented by hundreds
of pupils. Moreover, the Sisters of Mercy of Pittsburg have sent
colonies to three other dioceses in the United States — to Chicago
in 184G, Providence in 1851, and Baltimore in 1855. The dio-
cese of Chicago contains already forty-six Sisters of this Order,
comprising thirty-one professed. A still larger number is found
in the dioceses of New York, Brooklyn, Hartford, Little Rock,
and San Francisco.

The Sisters of the Order of Our Lady of Mercy have in view
all the spiritual, and even all the corporal works of mercy, but
more especially the instruction of poor girls, the visit of the sick
and dying poor, and of prisoners, and the protection of decent
girls in distress. To attain this last object, they open Houses of
Industry, Avhere girls out of work or place find labor and a shel-
ter. The Sisters endeavor to place them as servants or hands in
good houses, and as families rely on the recommendation of the
Sisters, they apply at the convent in preference to venal intelli-
gence offices. During the short period that the Sisters keep
their protegees their religious instruction is not neglected, and in

13*

298

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

every city where such a liouse exists, it has prochicod incalculablf
good in preserving young girls from tlio seductions of heresy and
vice. The Sisters of Mercy visit the prisons, attend those con-
demned to death, and justly consider themselves combining in
happy proportions the life of Martha with that of Mary. " The
offices of the choir, as the other duties of the contemplative life,
take up several hours of the day ; and these assure each of the
Sisters the particular and distinct grace which is accorded to the
life of activity and contemplation, animating her amid her painful
occupations by the anticipated sounds of that voice which says :
' Cotne, ye well beloved of my Father, * * * * whatever
you have done for one of my least brethren you have done for

» «*

This institute arose at Dublin, in 1829, and its foundress is
Mrs. Catharine McAuley, born on the l7th of September, 1778,
in a castle near Dublin. Belonging to a Catholic family favored
with the goods of this world, young Catharine had the misfortune
to lose her parents in childhood and be brought up by a Protestant
uncle. She was not required to renounce her baptismal failli,
but she was deprived of all means of religious instruction, and
many a young girl would have succumbed to the influence of
such an education. Miss McAuley, however, resolved to remain
firm in the communion of her parents, and as soon as she avms
mistress of her actions she was instructed in her religion, and
made rapid progress in piety. Rejecting all offers for her hand,
she conceived the project of devoting her person and her fortune
to the relief of her neighbor; yet she did not leave, before tlieir

■f^ '

* Illustrations of tho Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy ; by a Sister
of the religious order of Our Lady of Mercy, with descriptive anecdotes.
London, 1840. This charming album represents in a scries of cngravinirs
the Sisters of Mercy iu the exercise of each work, and was designed and
written by Sister Agncw, a convert from Protestantism, authoress of Gcral-
dine Kome and the Abbey, and the Young Connuunicuuts. W'c reyiet only
that the letter-press was ?o brief.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

299

''%'

'^#

death, the foster-parents who had watched over her childhood,
and even had the consolation of seeing both her uncle and aunt
abjure Protestantism. The spectacle of all the works of charity
effected by Miss McAuley in their castle had preached most
effectually to their hearts. Guided by the advice of the Rev.
Mr. Armstrong, she bought some ground on Baggot-street, Dub-
lin, and erected a large house to found her peculiar work of
mercy — " the protection of decent women." After long consulta-
tions with the diocesan authority as to the propriety of founding
a new institute, instead of joining one of those already existing,
Mrs. McAuley resolved to create the Order of Our Lady of
Mercy, and entered her convent with some companions in 1827.

She soon, however, left it in order to go through a regular no-
vitiate in the Presentation Convent, Dublin ; after which she re-
turned to her house in Baggot-street, in December, 1830, and
her companions in their turn went to receive the veil at the
Presentation. Since then the renown of the good effected at
Dublin by the Sisters of Mercy induced other cities to solicit
them, and the new Dublin Order extended with wonderful rapidity
over all Ireland. Nor was the good which it effected confined,
to the island of saints ; it soon spread to England* and the colo-
nies of the British Empire, and ere long the Sisterhood of Mercy
came to share the labors of the other religious orders in the
United States. In 1843, Bishop O'Connor, as we have seen,
solicited and obtained a colony of seven Sisters for his episcopal
city, of which Mother Francis Xavier Warde was appointed Su-
perior. There, meanwhile, God had prepared a most valuable
accession to the pious colony thus selected for the undertaking.
Miss Eliza Jane Tiernan was the daughter of one of the wealthiest
and most highly esteemed merchants of Pittsburg. She was
educated at Emmetsburg, and uniting in her person the accom-

* Tho first convent in England was founded at Bermondsey, London, ia

1889.

300

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

plishmcnts wliich a polished educHlion gfive, with the iititnral
advantages arising from tlie wealth and position of her family, as
well as from her own natural talents, she was one of the greatest
favorites in the fashionable circles of Pittsburg. She bad been
for a long time deliberating on her vocation, but in the sununer
of 1843, before the appointment of the bishop, and during Dr.
O'Connor's absence in Europe, she resolved on examining care-
fully the will of God in her regard. She had hoard something of
the Order of Mercy, though none of its members were yet to be
found in the United States. She obtained all the information
she could on the subject, and finally resolved to recommend the
matter to God under the patronage of St. Francis Xavier, to
whom she had always entertained great devotion. She made a
novena preparatory to his feast in December, 1848, and having
received communion on the morning of that day, resolved firmly
to become a Sister of Mercy, though she was then entirely igno-
rant of the means by which her resolution could be accomplished.
Bishop O'Connor had already been consecrated at Rome, but no
account of his movements had reached Pittsburg before the 3d of
December. On that day his departure from Europe, accompa
nied by seven Sisters of Mercy, was announced in the newspapers
received from Philadelphia, and these were handed by Mr. Tier-
nan to his daughter, when he came to dinner, with the pithy
remark that h'i thought he had news that would interest her. It
is unnece^^sary tc say that in a few weeks she was a postulant in
the new convent of Mercy, and in due time was professed under
the name of Sister Xavier. Her father died before her profession,
leaving her a handsome fortune, with a full knowledge of the use
she would make of it. She bestowed it upon the connnunity,
and thus eii.ibled the Sisters to become almost at once firmly
established, and to spread rapidly. In 1843, the Mother Supe-
rior resolved to revisit Ireland to obtain an additional supply of
Sisters of experience, who might enable the community to meet

IN THE UNITED STATES.

301

ler-
lithy
It
t in
indev
sion,
e use
mity,
rmly
kipe-
ily of
meet

the increasing doniand for llioir services. She selected Sister
Xavier as her companion.* At the various houses they visited,
all were so struck with her piety and good sense that they
referred to her as a most suitable person to he appointed mistress
of novices, and to that office she was in fact ajipoiuted on her
return. But alas ! her career was short. Of her it may be truly
said, " In brevi explevit tempora multa." The Sisters opened
their hospital in 1847, at a time when there was no shelter for
the sick and poor of the city but an abandoned coal-shed, which
had formerly been connected with the water- works. There was
nothing in which Sister Xavier felt greater interest, and she de-
voted herself to it with all her energies. In the spring of 1848
the typhus fever was raging. Several of the Sisters contracted
the fatal disease and fell victims to it. Sister Xavier was inces-
sant in her attendance, but though she escaped the typhus, ery-
sipelas, the result of her close attendance in the crowded wards,
attacked her, and in a few days put a period to her labors on
earth.

Such was one whom God raised up for the Order to give it
its first member in the United States, an example of all virtue,
her personal services, and earthly wealth.

Among the eminent Sisters of this house who have since de-
parted this life, we may also allude to the Superioress, Sister
Josephine Cullen, a niece of the Archbishop of Dublin, aud Sister
Aloysia Strange, cousin of the Cardinal Archbishop of Westmin-
ster, both primates of the United Kingdom having contributed
in their families to found the Order of Mercy among us.*

All the houses in the United States are not, however, filiations
of that at Pittsburg. That at New York was founded by Arch-
bishop Hughes, who, in 1846, obtained some Sisters in Dublin
for his episcopal city, where they have accomplished prodigies of

* Letter of Rt. Kov. M. O'Connor, A Sketch of tlio Order of Mercy : Dublin.

302

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

I' I

jjood, ami in 1855 founded a house in Brooklyn. The house in
Newfoundland, now numbering forty Sisters, was founded from
Ireland in 1843, as was tliatof San Francisco in 1854.

The venerable foundress did not see on earth this admirable
development of her work. Yet she lived long enough to have
the consolation of hearing that her institute had been canonically
recognized at Rome, by Pontifical rescript of July 5th, 1841, and
slie died soon after, leaving a memory in great veneration among
her spiritual daughters.*

After having provided for the Christian education of young
girls and the relief of the sick, Bishop O'Connor's next care was
to secure the youth of the other sex the boon of religious instruc-
tion, and with this design the prelate brought from Ireland with
liim, in 1845, some Brothers of the Presentation. The mother
house of this religious institute was then at Cork ; but God did
not seem to favor the establishment in America; one of the
Brothers soon died at Pittsburg ; another asked to return to Ire-
land ; a third wished to leave the institute, in order to become a
priest, and entered among the Augustinians at Philadelphia. At
last, as if to show the designs of Providence, Brother Paul Carey
and Brother BVancis Ryan were struck by lightning in the open
street on tlie 2d of Jilly, 1848, as they were returning to their
residence in Birmingham, after teaching Sunday-school, in the
school-house attached to the cathedral in Pittsburg. Only one
professed Brother and two novices were now left, and these were
too few to continue the schools.

Bishop O'Connor had already thought of replacing them, and
applied to the Brothers of the Third Order of St. Francis, estab-
lished in the diocese of Tuam in Irc^land. With the approbation
of the Most Rev. John McHale, Arclibishop of Tuam, the cora-
numities of Clifden and Roundstone gave six members, who set

* Keview, March, 1847; and intbrmat'on afforded by Mother Agnes
O'Connor.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

303

out tor Aiuoricii in 1847, iiiid fomiilt'd !i house at Loivtto, in tho
village created by tho Rev. Demetrius Gallitzin. Tlie chief ob-
j('ct of the Franciscan Brothers is the education of youth, and
manual hibor is their secondary object. Tho principal convent
and novitiate are at Loretto ; but the Brothers also opened a
house at Cameron Bottom in 1852, and a school in Pittsburg,
where they have over four hundred pupils. They liave, also, a
school at Allegheny and a boarding-school at Loretto. Thirty
Brothers are employed in tho diocese of Pittsburg, and as the
number increases, the vigilant bishop confides schools to them,
to shield Catholic children from the dangers of the government
schools. The Third Order of Franciscans was instituted by St.
Francis of Assisium for persons living in the world, either in the
state of marriage or celibacy.* At a later date, Pope Leo X.
selected from the written rules of St. Francis those to be observed
by the Tertiaries living in community. About 1821, a branch
of the Order was established at Mount Bellow, county Galway,
Ireland, by tho Rev. Michael Bernard Dillon, J^'iar Minor; and
the Provincial of the Franciscans in Ireland appointed him Su-
perior of the community, a post which ho filled till his death,
1828. In January, 1831, the Franciscan Brothers obtained per-
mission of the Holy See to depend solely on the Archbishop of
Tuam, and in 1848, those of Loretto asked to obey only the
Bishop of Pittsburg, which was granted, with authority to open
a novitiate, and privilege of founding houses of their Order in
other parts of America.f

The Catholic education of the sons of the lower classes beint;
secured by the coming of the Franciscan Brothers, it still remain-

* John Beriiardon, born at Assisium in 1182, was called Francis, or the
French, because he spoke that language fluently. lie bejran to obtain fol-
lowers in 1209, and died in 1226. Ho was canonized in 1228. (See liis life
in Alban Butler.)

t Information furnished by Brother Lawrence T. O'Donnel, Superior of
the Monastery of Loretto.

804

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

ed to think of presoiviii<^ religion in tlm hciut.s of (ho yoiiiijj; im-n
of higher nuik in society, by oHtahlishing ti college, witii le.'irned
and able masters. While anxious to secure this, IJishop O'Con-
nor warmly welcomed an offer of the 13enodictines of Metten, in
Bavaria, to found a monastery in his diocese ; and in this course
of the year, 1840, a priest of this ancient and venerable order,
F'ather Boniface Wimmor, now Mitred Abbot, arrived, accompa-
nied by sixteen brothers, and four students in theology. 'J'ho
great St. Boniface, who evangelized Gennany from 720 to 7o5,
and, with the autliority of the Holy See, created four bishoprics
in Bavaria, also founded monasteiies of religious there ; but it is
not certain whether these monks followed the rule of St. Bene-
dict, or that of S:. Basil, borrowed from the Eastern monks.
Boniface, born in England, drew over to Germany from his na-
tive land many Benedictine religious, who aided him to reform
abuses among the Christians, and convert the idolaters. But the
uncertainty as to the constitutions of his monasteries ceased with
tlie year 804, when the Council of Aix hi (.^napello decreed that
the rule of St. Benedict only should be followed. At the com-
mencement of this century, except that of St. James of the Scots
at Ratisbon, and of the Benedictine Nuns at Eichstadt, all tlio
Benedictine monasteries in Bavaria were suppressed by the pre-
ponderance of Josephism, and the elector confiscated their prop-
erty. But t'.venty-four years later, and in 1827, thanks to the
influence of King Louis, the Abbey of St. Michael, at Wetten,
was restored, followed by St. Stephen's, at Augsburg, in 183 s,
and several in other cities. The work of restoration being crown-
ed, in 1850, by the establishment of the Abbey of St. Bonifficc,
with a novitiate at Munich, a new generation of Fathers soon re-
vived the learuet studies and teachings of the ancient Benedic-
tines. When it w^ v^ronosed to found a seminary for the Gernuiu
missions in AmcU'j.'i, he Benedictines warmly entered into the
project; and Fi«ther Loniiuce Wimiu'-^r having oftered to begin

IN 'Hit: UMlTEl) t^TATKB.

i;o5

•SI

■;^5

tlie work, was sont out, by tlio Society v)f tlu» NfiRslons at Munich.
The attempt provoil uiohI huccoshI'uI, aim llm Beuodictiucs in Peuu-
hylvaiiia, alk'i* an i'xi.slc'U(;o of only nine years in the country, havt!
spread so as to number five monaslcrivs, in wbieli one hundred
and tifty members of the ^'reat family of St. lienedict dcvot*; them-
selves to ev ry jvind of intellectual study and manual labor. The
Holy Sw^ i. '■' ti)'> 'I into consideration this remarkable proi^rcss,
and i»\ brief of July 29, 1855, raised the monastery of St. Vin-
cent, at ! itrohe, io the dignity of Abbey, according to tho
sti'Uitos of the Congregation of Havaria, and aggregated it to tluj
celebrated Abbey of Monte Cassino, in Italy. Father Boniface
Wimmer is appointed first Mitred Abbot of the Benedictines of
America, and will have under his jurisdiction the monasteries of
Carrolltown and Indiana, in the diocese of Pittsburg, and tbat of
St. Marystown, in the diocese of Erie. St. Vincent's Ablw;y hjus
a very flourishing college ; and tho Benedictines will, doubtless,
in conscipience of the complete organization now given to the or-
der in America, soon extend the sphere of their action and influ-
ence. Eleven centuries since, Germany obtained its first religious
from England and Ireland ; now Bavaria rei)ays the debt in part,
at last, by sending among the descendants of the islanders, in tho
New World, tho Benedictines and Sisters of Notre Dame.*

Bishop O'Connor also enriched his diocese with a house of the
Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame, of which we have al-

* St. Benedict, born at N-.rci, in Umbria, in 480, begun, towards tlic close
of the century, to gather compunions around liim ; and ut his doatli, in 543,
had alroa iv built many n iiuisteries. His rule spread all over the West,
I id afiter a long strugyrlo with that of St. f'olurnban and tlie Irish monks,
which liad prevailed in Ireland, Britain, France, and Germany, finally su-
perseded it.

The diocese of Vinc«nnea, also, possesses a monastery of Benedictines,
a filiation of the celebrated Abbey of our Lady, at Ensiedlen, in Sweden.
Faithful to their traditions as early civilizers of Europe, the Benedictines of
England and Spain are now laboring to elevate the savages of Australia.
In Bavaria they now num ler about one hundred and thirty Fathers and
fifty-five nuns.— (Z^<^ of Father Marogiia.)

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ready spoken. At Pittsburg they instruct two hundred and fifty
girls, and have, moreover, an orphan asylum at Troy Hill. The
order is now so firmly established, that for some years no Sistera
have come out from Germany.

A. the same time that Bishop O'Connor was laboring in the
cause of education, he was zealously engaged in assuring a con-
tinuance of parochial clergy, and his success has been admirable.
He found but fifteen priests in his diocese when he took posses-
sion in 1843, and in the short space of ten years he had increased
the number to eighty. Besides fixed pastors, the prelate sought
to give his flock the advantage of periodical missions, where, by
the influence of holy retreats and eloquent preaching, the faith
is awakened in many hearts. With this view, during a visit to
Rome in 1852, Dr. O'Connor asked the General of the Passionists
Vo give him some priests of his order, and he brought out with
aim three priests and one brother, who arrived at Pittsburg on
the 6th of December, 1852.

The Institute of the Passionists, or, more properly. Barefooted
Clerks of the Most Holy Cross and Passion of Jesus Christ, was
founded by Paul Danei, better known as the Blessed Paul of the
Cross, who was born on the 3d of January, 1694, at Ovada, in
the diocese of Acqui, in the Republic of Genoa. This holy priest
began his first community in 1737, at Mount Argentard, and on
the 15th of May, 1741, obtained of Pope Benedict XIV. the con-
firmation of his rule. The object of Father Paul of the Cross
was to unite the mortified life of the Trappists and Carthusians
with the active life of the Jesuits and Lazarists. He wished to
embrace at once contemplation and action and devote himself to
the ministry of the word in missions. His rule was again con-
firmed, with some modifications, by Pope Clement XIV., in 1760,
and by Pius VI. in 1775 ; and the holy founder, who died at
Rome on the I7th of October, 1775, was beatified by Pius IX.
on the 1st of October, 1852. The Institute of the Blessed Paul

IN THE UNITED STATES.

307

of the Cross spread rapidly, especially after his holy ckalh, anCi in
1810 there existed in Italy many houses of Passionists called Ritiri.
Suppressed by the French invasion, tliey reorganized in 1814 ; and
in 1840 made a first establishment in England, at Aston Hall,
Stafibrdshire, under the patronage of Bishop, now Cardinal Wise-
man. The Right Honorable Lord Spencer, converted from Prot-
estantism in 1830, is now the humble Father Ignatius, Passion-
ist, and all know the journeys he has undertaken, and the ardor
he displayed to form an association of prayers for the conversion
of England. The order is now divided into five provinces —
three in Italy, one in England, and one in Belgium. On this
latter depend two Ritiri in France — one at Bordeaux, and the
other at Boulogne. The General resides at Rome, in the house
of St. John and St. Paul, given to the Passionists by Pope
Clement XIV. ; and they owe to the munificence of Pope Pius
IX. another house near the Santa Scala, of which he has con-
fided the care to them. The Passionists number about seven
hundred ; they have missions and a bishop in Hungary, and
other missionaries of their order have borne the Gospel to Aus-
tralia.*

The Passionists established at Birmingham, near Pittsburg,
received in 1854 a reinforcement of two priests and one brother.
They have opened a novitiate, where five clerics prepare for study
and the functions of the priesthood. Want of a complete mastery of
English has hitherto prevented their giving missions in the dio-
cese ; but they have already been useful in the ministry, and two
of them direct a parish of three thoiisand German Catholics near
their Ritiro. They are greatly enlarging their church and house,

* The Life of tlie Blewsed Paul of the Crosa, founder of the Barefooted
Clerks of the Most Holy Cross nnd Passion. London, 1853.

The author is Monseicnore Strambi, who died in the odor of sanctity,
Bishop of Macerata and Tolentino, and who, before being raised to the epis-
copacy, was Fra Vincent de San Paolo, Passionist.

308

THE CATHOLIC CIIUKCII

ill .

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in order to give retreats to ecclosiastics .and laics according tft
their institute ; and the adjunction of this new religious order,
for which the Catholics of America are indebted to the zeal of
Bishop O'Connor, bids fair to realize in the United States all the
good which it has produced for the last fifteen years in Eng-
land.*

The Bishop of Pittsburg, finding his diocese too extended, and
fearing that, with ail his activity, he would be unable to main-
tain an efficacious superintendence, solicited the National Coun-
cil of Baltimore, in 1852, to propose to the Holy See the erec-
tion of an episcopal See at Erie. The prelate even offered to
assume the direction of the new diocese, and there to begin anew
the work of organization which he had so happily accomplished
at Pittsburg. The proposal was made at Rome ; and by letters
apostolical of July 29, 1853, the Right Rev. Michael O'Connor
was transferred to the See of Erie, comprising the ten northwest
counties of Pennsylvania. At the same time, the Rev. Josue M
Young, Pastor of Lancaster, Ohio, was elected to the See of Pitts-
burg. Bishop O'Connor at once repaired to his new post ; but
the regret of his former diocesans at his departure, and the opiu
ions of his brethren in the episcopacy, having reached Rome,
he was restored to the See of Pittsburg, and Bishop Young,
who had declined it, was consecrated Bishop of Erie on the 23d
of April, 1854. On his return to Pittsburg, Dr. O'Connor bent
all his energy to complete his Cathedral building, to replace that
destroyed by a conflagration in 1851. This misfortune had ap-
parently exhausted the bishop's resources ; but, by perseverance
and confidence in God, he at last reared a new pile, at a cost of
eighty thousand dollars. When we consider the general poverty
of the Catholics of America, and the frequent appeals made to

' in
4

* Information furnished by Kev. Giovanni Domonico, Superior of the
Eitiro at Birmingham.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

309

their generosity, we can scarcely conceive liow it was possible to
erect in so short a time a monument of that importance ; aiwi
such a result is no less a eulogy on the zeal of the bishop, than
on the munificence of his flock. The Cathedral of St. Paul
held, at a late mission, over eight thousand persons, and is the
most spacious church in the United States. Its Gothic archi-
tecture reflects honor on the talented architect, Mr. Charles
Bartberger ; and the ornaments, statues, and stained glass, which
adorn the interior, give the nave all the majesty worthy of a
Christian people. It is far from those humble wooden and brick
chapels which the missionaries build when they can gather at
any spot a little nucleus of Catholics. It is a real cathedral of
vast proportions, such as would not be deemed amiss in any old
European city, and affording room for displaying in all its pomp
the ceremonial of the Church ; its lofty spires tower above the
great industrial city of Pittsburg, the Birmingham of America,
and seem to consecrate it to Catholicity. In its inclosure the
Protestant can find place, when a curiosity, which is sometimes
the first sign of grace, draws him to our churches to seek to un-
derstand the offices and mysteries. If, as all admit, the Basilica
of St. Peter's at Rome has been the instrument of converting
many heretics or infidels, who entered it hostile or indifferent
spectators, all will feel how useful it is for religion to possess
some majestic shrines in the United States, in order to give stu-
bility to the worship and fervor to the faith.

On Sunday, the 24th of June, 1855, the solemn dedication of
the Cathedral at Pittsburg took place in presence of seventeen
bishops, who came from all parts of the United States to take
part in that imposing ceremony. Such a meeting is consoling,
when we reflect that a century ago a French chaplain, subject
to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Quebec,* was then the only

Metropolitan for August, 1855. Vol. iii. p. 393.

310

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

:;'^!iii

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I i

Catholic prelate in North America, from the frontiers of Mexico
to Hudson's Bay.

The* city of Erie, situated on the shore of the lake of the
same name, recalling an Indian tribe which has long since been
swept away, is built on the site of the old French fort Presqu 'ile,
and in 1755, as French annals state, this fort had as chaplain
the Recollect, Father Luke Collet. It was then only a military
post, and colonization does not appear to have entered there till
the close of the century. The first missionary who seems to
have exercised the ministry among the Irish immigrants at Erie
and thereabouts, was the Rev. Father Whelan, who took up his
residence at Sugar Creek about the time of the suit against Mr.
Fromm. His visit to Erie took place about 1807. We know of
no other missionary there till Father William O'Brien, a native
of Maryland and pupil of Georgetown, who had been ordained
in 1808, repaired thither in 1815. The Rev. Charles B.
Maguire, of Pittsburg, held some stations there in 1816 and
1817, after whom the Rev. Terence McGirr came to Erie three
times from 1818 to 1821 to administer the sacraments. The
Rev. Patrick O'Neil was then appointed to serve Erie at long
intervals, and his last visit took place in 1830. The Rev. Fran-
cis Masquelet, an Alsacian priest, showed himself several times at
Erie from 1834 to 1836, and the Rev. Patrick Raflferty, the
author of a small history of the Protestant Reformation, was
there in 1837. Till this period the city was too unimportant,
and the missionaries in the State of Pennsylvania too few to ena-
ble Erie to have one permanently stationed there. The Rev.
Mr. McCabe resided there from 1838 to 1840, and the following
year Father J. Lewis, of the order of St. Francis, was appointed
to take charge of the German population who had begun to
settle at Erie. This was the epoch of the erection of the two
little wooden churches, one for the Irish and American, the
other for the German Catholics. Since then both have been

IN THE UNITED STATES.

811

rebuilt of brick, and of more enlarged dimensions, and they are
opened to worship, although their exteriors are not finished : St.
Patrick's Church, which now serves as a Cathedral, has had
successively as pastors the Rev. P. Prendcrgast, R. Brown, T.
S. Reynolds and Dean ; and the German Church of St. Mary's
has been served by the Rev. P. Kleidernam, N. Steinbacher, and
F. J. Hartman. The patriarchal Catholic family of Erie is that
of Mrs. Dickson, who at the beginning of the century, and as
soon as a priest appeared on the shores of the lake, received the
missionaries under her roof, showed them the most cordial hos-
pitality, and has always generously contributed to the erection
of the churches and the support of the clergy. The venerable
Mrs. Dickson, who is still alive, is of the Gillespie family at
Brownsville, noted for its devotedness to religion from the
introduction of Catholicity into Ohio and Western Pennsyl-

vania.

It has been said that Erie was pointed out by the venerable
Bishop Flaget as a suitable See for a diocese, and we read in the
Annals of the Propagation of the Faith : " When we trace this
journey of over two thousand miles, we might say that wherever
Bishop Flaget pitched his tent he lays the foundation of a new
church, and that every one of his chief resting-places has been
raised to a bishopric, St. Louis, in Missouri ; Detroit, in Mich-
igan; Cincinnati, capital of Ohio; Erie and Buffalo, on the
lakes; Pittsburg, which he evangelized on his way back to
Louisville, after thirteen months' absence, after giving missions
wherever he found a town of whites, a plantation of slaves, or a
village of Indians."*

Erie was not, however, a bishop's See in 1850 : it became so
only in 1853, and we deem it very doubtful whether Bishop
Flaget ever passed through that city. In his journey to Canada,

* Annalea de la Propagation de la Foi, xxii. 341.

312

THE CATHOLIC CHUECH

-.1 : '

nil

■fill
ill

.3;;

the venerable bishop traversed Lake Erie from Detroit to
Niagara in a sailing vessel. Erie was then too unimportant a
spot for a vessel to stop at, and if Bishop Flagct landed for a
few hours^ he certainly did not oflSciate or perform any ecclesi-
astical function, although we confess he may have passed through
in 1836. We accordingly do not think that the proposal of
Erie for a See dates prior to 1852.

In 1855 this diocese contained thirty -two churches and sixteen
ecclesiastics, and the Catholic population is estimated at thir-
teen thousand. Two of the Benedictine monasteries of Penn-
sylvania, those of St. Marystown and Frenchville, are situated
in the diocese of Erie, and in 1853 there was established also at
St. Mary's a convent of Benedictine nuns from the celebrated
monastery of St. Walburga, at Eichstadt, in Bavaria. In 1855,
Sister Benedicta Reipp was the Mother Superior, with five pro-
fessed sisters and sixteen novices. The Benedictine nuns devote
themselves to the education of girls, and direct the parish schools,
but they are preparing to open a boarding-school, in order to give
superior instruction to young ladies, and their cultivated manners
admirably fit them for the highest sphere of education.

The convent of St. Walburga, at Eichstadt, dates as far back
as the year 1022, and was begun. in that year by Bishop Her-
bert, who made the convent grants of land. From age to age,
new benefactors increased the property of the Benedictines, so
that at the secularizatxon, the spoliators found a rich spoil to
divide in the charity of the faithful. The monastery was then
almost entirely destroyed. By the intercession, however, of the
Bishop of Eichstadt, Joseph Anthony, Count of Stribenberg, the
nuns obtained permission to dwell in community till a royal
decree of June 7th, 1835, permitted them to receive novices, and
gave new life to the monastery. St. Walburga, patroness of the
Bavarian Benedictine nuns, is honored m some parts of France
by the name of Saint Avaugour. Daughter of St. Richard,

I
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IN THE UNITED STATES.

313

f-1

king of the West Saxons iu England, and sister of Sts. Willibald
and Winibald, she was at an early age placed in the Benedictine
convent of Winburn, when her father and brothers set out on
their pilgrimage for Rome and Jerusalem. In 748, her uncle,
St. Boniface, Archbishop of Mentz, invited her to join him in
Germany, and notwithstanding her disinclination to leave Win-
burn, where she had spent twenty-eight happy years of her life,
she set out with thirty of her companions. She soon became
Superioress of the convent of Ileidenheim, built in '752.* Her
two brothers were also called over to Germany by St. Boniface,
and Willibald became first Bishop of Eichstadt, in Bavaria.
This royal family of saints issuing from England to convert
Germany, doubtless now protects the Benedictine efforts in
America, and we hope ere long that churches will rise in Penn-
Bylvania under the name of St. Walburga, the noble princess,
self-exiled, like the Bavarian nuns of St. Benedict, in order to
devote herself afar to the salvation of souls.

Thus Pennsylvania, where in 1730 Father Josiah Greaton, of
the Society of Jesus, furtively entered in the disguise of a
Quaker, and where he was the only missionary exercising the
holy ministry, is now divided into three dioceses, containing, in
1855, two hundred and twenty-three churches, and two hun-
dred and sixteen ecclesiastics. Besides the secular clergy, eight
religious orders of men, and se'^en communities of women,
devote themselves either to parish duties, preaching, or the
instruction of youth. On one side are the Jesuits, the Au-
gustinians, the Redemptorists, the Lazarists, the Benedictines,
the Passionists, the Franciscan Brothers, and the Brothers of the
Christian Schools ; on the other, are the Sisters of Charity of
Emmetsburg, the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, the Sisters of St.
Joseph of Puy, the Ladies of the Good Shepherd from Angers,

* Faber— Li"es of the English Saints : London, 1844 ; Butler's Lives of
the Saints.

^BBSHSSEk.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

the Sisters of Mercy from Dublin, Sisters of Notre Dame, and
Benedictine nuns from Bavaria. In spite of obstacles, poverty,
hostility of men, these institutes prosper and take root ; the
building of churches, far from abating, increases ; every day
gives our Church new conquests ; and the progress of Catholicity
in Pennsylvania is only a prelude of those which a future, fast
approaching, prepares for it with God's grace.*

"3;
If •

(81 )
',•11

CHAPTER XX.

STATE OF NEW YORK — (1642-1708).

Missions among the Iroquois — Father Jogues— Father Breasani — Father Le Moyne—
Emigration of Christians to Canada— Close of the Jesuit Missions in New York.

When the Jesuit Father Andrew White landed in Maryland
in 1634 with the colony of Sir George Calvert, the Dutch were
already planted on that part of the American coast now com-
prised in the State of New York ; but the English missionaries
of the seventeenth century, too few to meet the religious wants
of Maryland, did not seek to penetrate within the borders of
New Netherland, and the first Catholic priests who trod its soil
were the French Jesuits from Canada. In 1608 the English
captain, Henry Hudson, sailing in the service of the Dutch West
India Company, discovered New York Bay and the beautiful
river which still bears his name. The same year, Samuel Cham-

* For what we have said of the three dioceses of Pennsylvania, we have
been fortunate enough to receive important information from Bishops
O'Connor and Young, and Archbishop Kenrick, and we now express to
these venerable prelates our sincere gratitude.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

315

plain, in the name of the King of France, founded Quebec, and
in 1616 brought over some Recollects to labor in converting the
Indians. The Algonquins, the Montagnais, and the llurons,
were soon evangelized by these religious, as well as by the Jesuits
who joined them in 1625. The Hurons from the outset sliowed
a friendship for the French, which has never cooled ; and the
colonists of Canada became by this simple fact the enemies of
the five Iroquois nations who dwelt scattered over the northern
part of the present State of New York, between the Hudson and
Lake Erie. The Iroquois, continually at war with the Hurons,
constantly bore off prisoners, whom they tortured to death, and
in the same way a priest was dragged in captivity to the banks
of the Mohawk, in the very neighborhood of where Albany now
stands.

In 1642 Father Isaac Jogues was proceeding from Quebec to
the Huron country, where he had devoted himself to the mission
for over six years, when he fell into the hands of a party of Iro-
quois as he ascended the St. Lawrence. These Indians led him
a captive to their village with young Rene Goupil, a holy young
man, who had devoted himself to the service of the missions, and
who was called from this fact a "donn6." The brave Goupil,
after courageously enduring the most cruel tortures, was put to
death for having been seen teaching a child to make the sign of
the cross.* As to Father Jogues, he remained for fifteen months
among the Mohawks, and had daily new martyrdoms to undergo
at the hands of those savages. They successively cut ofi^, joint

have
lishops
res3 to

* Rend Goupil, or Good Rene, as the miKsionaries called him, was born at
Anglers, and studied medicine. He entered the Society of Jesus as a
novice, but his healtli did not permit him to remain. On recovering, he gave
himself to the Canada mission, and rendered great service by nursing the
sick and in aiding the Fathers as a catechist. He was put to death on tho
29th of September, 1642, and Father Jogues calls liini " A martyr not only
of obedience, but also of the faith and the cross." (Shea's History of tho
Catholic Missions, p. 210.)

310

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by joint, almost all liis fingers on both liands; they mutilated in
the same way his feet by tc^aring the very flesh with their teeth,
and applied red-hot irons to ditleient parts of his body. The
Jesuit had several opportunities of escaping to the Dutch Fort
Orange, now the city of Albany ; but as long as he had around
him Huron prisoners to assist in their torments, he would not
escape from his tortures. At last Father Jogues, being left
almost the sole survivor of the band, listened to the generous
proposals of the Dutcli, who paid his ransom after ho had escaped
from the lumds of the Mohawks. The Dutch minister at Fort
Orange, Dominie John Megapolensis, nursed the missionary with
touching compassion. At New Amsterdam, now New York,
Governor Kieft received Father Jogues with marks of distinction,
and gave him a passage in the first vessel for Europe ; but the
vessel, shattered by a storm on the coast of England, was plun-
dered by wreckers, who stripped the Jesuit and his companions.
At Falmouth he took passage on a collier's bark, and landed Ju
Brittany, near St. Pol de Leon, on Christmas-day, 1643.

In a rude sailor's coat, dragging himself along with pam, lean-
ing on a staflf, the venerable Jesuit was no longer recognized.
Hospitality was no less cordially extended to him in a peasant's
humble cot ; hero he was invited to share their morning meal,
but the missionary's only thought was to celebrate duly the fes-
tival by receiving the Eucharist, and he had the nearest church
pointed out to him, where he had the happiness of approaching the
altar. For sixteen months the pious religious had been deprived
of communion. The good Bretons lent him a hat and a little cloak
to appear more decently in church. They thought him to be
one of those unfortunate children of Catholic Erin whom persecu-
tion frequently drove to the shores of France ; but when, on his
return from Mass, his charitable hosts saw the horrible condi-
tion of his hands, Father Jogues was compelled to satisfy tlieir
pious curiosity by relating modestly his history, and the peasants

■'*.:'?

I ik

IN THE UNITED STATES.

317

of Leon foil at his feet ovorwliolmeJ with pity And adinimtion.
He hiinst'If relates how tho young girls, moved by his ac(M)unt ot
his misfortunes, gave him their little alms. "They came," says
he, " with so much generosity and modesty to otter mo two or
tliree pence, which was probably all their treasure, that I was
moved to tears." A native of the spot where this touching scene
took place, we hope to bo pardoned for relating it at length.

Father Jogues did not employ his captivity solely in his own
sanctilication ; ho celebrated seventy baptisms among the Mo-
liawks, and heard the confessions of tho Huron prisoners. At
Now Amsterdam ho found two Catholics — a Portuguese woman
and an Irishman — whoso confessions he heard, and it was the
first time that the sacrament of penance was administered in tho
city of New York, which now contains twenty-three Catholic
churches. In Franco tho fellow-religious of Father Jogues, who
had supposed him dead, received him with transports of joy ; tho
queen, Anne of Austria, rushed to kiss the mutilated hands of tho
martyr, and the Pope grjmtcil him a special dispensation to cele-
brate Mass, saying " that it would be unjust to refuse a martyr ot
Jesus Christ the privilege of drinking the blood of Christ" — "in-
dignum essot Christi martyrem Christi non bibere sanguinem."*
They wished to retain him in France, but Father Jogues sighed
after his American missions, and returned to Canada in 1645.
He took part in the negotiations for peace between tho Ilurons
and the Mohawks, and conceived great hopes of converting tho
Five Nations. He was accordingly, at his own request, sent to
the Mohawks — the Agniers of the Canadian writers — to found a
mission ; but scarcely had he approached their village tlian lio

* Father Jognes landed in Brittany on tho 25th of December, 1643. Pope
"Urban VIII. died on tlie 7th of July, 1644, and Pope Innocent X. was elected
on the 18th of September, 1644. It was, therefore, in nil probability, Urban
VIII. who granted Father Jogues the glorious dispensation rendered neces-
sary by hia rautihvtion.

r I

1,^

318

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

c i

Sill

was treacherously seized, together with John Lalnnde, his faithfiu
companion, and tlio next day both received the nioital blow,
The head of Father Jogues, severed from the body, was set up
on one of the village palisades, and his body cast into Caughna-
waga Creek. Thus, on the 18th of October, 1040, pc^rishod tho
first missionary who bore tho cross within tho territory of New
York, and his blood has not been shed in vain for tho faith. New
Amsterdam, where Father Jogues found two Catholics, is now
tho Seo of an archbishop ; Albany is a bishoprio ; and near tho
spot where ho received his death-blow rises the city of Schenec-
tady, where St. Mary's Church daily sees tho Holy Sacrifice
offered to heaven for tho salvation of mankind.*

Before the death of Father Jogues, another missionary was
dragged into Mohawk bondage. This was Father Bressani, who
likewise, on his way to the Huron country, in the mouth of A})ril,
1044, full into the hands of these savage enemies. He had to
undergo the same torments from those barbarous executioners,
who cut ofi" nine of his ten fingers, and after four months of tor-
ment of every kind, sold him to the Dutch at Fort Orange. They
treated him kindly, and sent him to France. Father Bressani
landed at Isle Rhe, but returned to Canada in the month of
July, 1645, and labored for five years more among the Hurons,
till the extinction of the Huron mission. He wrote a history of
it in Italian,! and we know nothing more fitted to melt tho

* Isaac Jogues was born at Orleans on tho 10th ot January, 1607. He en-
tered the Society of Jesus at Eouen in 1624, and was sent to Canada in 1626.
In love of suffering, tender piety to tho Holy Eucharist and the Blessed Vir-
gin, ho has seldom been surpassed.

t "Brovo relatione d'alcuni Missiono," etc., printed at Maceruta, States of
the Church, in 1653, and dedicated to Cardinal de Lugo. A French transla-
tion of it, with a valuable biography and notes, was published at Montreal in
1852, by the learned Father Felix Martin, of the Society of Jesus, President
of St. Mary's College. Father Bressani was born at Rome, and entered tho
Society of Jesus at the age of fifteen. Ho came to Canada in 1644, and on
his recall to Italy in 1650, devoted many years to giving missions. lie died

IN THE UNITED STATES.

3L!)

hcnit of a Christian, to excito piety, nnd atiimato the fervor by
the recital of tho toiicliuij; convoi-Hion of tlit^ Indians, and by the
acts of the nuirlyrdoni of their holy apostles. Wo seem to recog-
nize the scoiKss of the primitive rhurch, beholding on one flido
80 much purity, simple unil trusting faith in the catochumens;
on the other, so much courage nnd unsluikeii Hrmness in the
missionaries when the Iroquois burst upon them. We oven feel
ourselves more sensible to the sutfeiings of our modern martyrs,
Brebeuf, Lalemand, Daniel, Chabanel, Menard, than wo are to
the torments of a St. I'artholomew or St. Agatha. For tho
latter, the halo of immortal glory which environs them, tho
difl'tsrence of manners, and the remote period which witnessed
their labors and sutferings, prevent our being especially touched;
but human nature shudders at the tormctits endured without a
murmur and without shrinking by victims so near our own times,
speaking our own language, whose handwriting and memorials
we can yet touch and handle.

The massacre of Father Jogues in 1G46 was the signal of now
wars on the part of the Iroquois, and their war parties overspread
Canada, sowing desolation and terror around them. In 1653
Quebec was in a manner besieged by these Indians, and the
wretched inhabitants were menaced by famine, not daring to
venture beyond tho fort to reap their harvest. At the sight of
this misery one of the Jesuits, Father Poncet, encouraged some
harvesters to go to the field of a poor woman, himself leading tho
way ; but he was at once taken prisoner by the Mohawks, who
led him to their villages, subjecting him to cruel torturfis. A
change in the policy of the Mohawks, however, soon led them to
desire peace with the French, and they restored Father Poncet to
liberty in order to conciliate the missionary. The latter returned

at Florence on the 'Jth of September, 1672. During his captivity ha was
able to baptize only one — a captive Huron at the stake. (Shea's Catholic
Missions, pp. 193-212.)

11*

320

THE CATHOLIC CHLKCH

i!)!ll

to Cjinada, after visiting tlie Diitcli at Furt Orange, where lit
heard tlie coufession of ^^veral Catholics. Father Joseph An-
thony Poncet de la Riviere, born at Paris about 1610, studied at
Rome, and came to Canada in 1G39. After preaching the Gos-
pel to the Hurons for six years, and being long pastor of Quebec,
he was recalled to France in 1G57, and resided for some time in
Brittany. We find him next at Loretto, Penitentiary of the
French ; but his zeal could not endure this sedentary lite, and
Father Poncet obtained an appointmeiit to the mission of Mar-
tinique, where he died in 1675, leaving a remarkable reputation
for science, talents, and sanctity. ,

Another Iroquois nation, the Onondagas,* also asked peace at
this period, expressing their desire to have missionaries. To
judge of their dispositions, Father Simon le Moyne left Quebec
for their canton on the 2d of July, 1654. Arriving at the mouth
of the Oswego river, he ascended it to the Onondaga village, and
was welcomed by the tribe. Ilis presence especially filled with
joy the numerous Huron Christians captive among the Iroquois,
and all recognized in him one of their former missionaiics.
Father le Moyne enabled many of these poor exiles to partake
of the sacraments ; he baptized children, and even adults, who
had been prepared for this grace by tlieir Huron prisoners.
Achiongeras, one of the chiefs, was the most zealous of the neo-
phytes, and received the name of John Baptist. In the month
of September Father le Moyne returned to Quebec to give au
account of the hopes of the mission, and announcing the speedy
coming of an Onondaga embassy. But the war which the Fries
were waging on them delayed the departure of the Onondaga
envoys, who reached Quebec in the summer of 1655. Their

* The Five Nations of Iroquois have left tlieir names in the State of New
York— in the Mohawk river, and the lakes and counties of Oneida, Onon-
daga, Cayuga, and Seneca, which will perpetuate the residence of those
clans ajid the labors of tiic Catholic missionaries.

1;
t.

IN THE UNITED STATES. g^j

Peter Chi„o,' ^ J ; Jf-"'^'' ^^"-- ClauJe Dabi„„ ^j

of the late ,vhc.o ,1, Zfs' ""'""' """'"" °" "^ >'-'«
of I'ovembc, 1055, tW bl^^,?"" ■■°''' "-• On the 18th

ChaH,thefl.,tehu;ch4 f heHoi:::"";'"" °' ''' *'"'>-'
" the State of New Y„,k ti !t , ^ , '" ™' ">«■ "»''-''*<l

i"g this sylvan shrine, and schoo " ' """"' "'"'"' '" '■--
<'ag., where whole e o L ' "• """ "°" °'""°^ «' ^non-
^3-nna of ChHsti„„it,. "Melth ^'7 trf1.*° "'""" '""
French eolony ,0 protcet them aJnlt, p • "'"'™ ''*^-^"«' »
■■eturned to Quebec in May uTT , '"• ''"""='' ''^»'''"n
e™or the dispositions of thf iLbn's " '"™ '° "'» «-

» ...: r ri ™t:ror ^ r ""— -•

Fathers 1, Mereier' and Reue 1 T" ^'' ^""'"^'e^. «itl>
Bfoar and Joseph Bour ier Ca^ ""'''f™'' "'""'^"■^ ^^"'^'-e
formed part of 'the convoy "anrtr'" ""'' ""'' ""'"^ -'"--.

- -e,..t. .^"r^:z;» s, ^dSr 9-

Father Rdnd Menard h • '^ "*'

»crbSr:SSSHr-=

14*

^v ;

322

THE CATHOLIC CIiUKClI

of tlic Futliers. The Cayugas, Oucidus, and Senroas were in
turn evangelized, and conversions everywhere rewarded the mis-
sionaries for tlieir toil, at the same time that Huron prisoners,
scattered among the tribes, received with joy the consolations of
religion. In the month of July, 1G57, two more Jesuits cama
from Quebec to aid the Fathers, who were »-.inking under their
toil. These were Father Paul Kagueneau and Father Francis
I )uperou.* But a change was soon perceived in the dispositions
of the heathen Iroquois, who still formed the great maj(jrity.
Their medicine men persuaded them that baptism destroyed
their children, and a plot was formed to cut ott" all the French.
Warned in time, the missionaries resolved to escape from their
butchers, and on the 20th of March, 1058, after giving a ban-
quet to the tribe to lull their vigilance, the French escnped by
night in boats and canoes which they had secretly prepared, and
hastened to Canada as their only shelter from Indian massacre.
Thus ended, after an existence of three years, the first Onondaga
mission, and we shall soon see it arise ;igain and produce new
fruits of benediction.

Father Simon le Moyne had visited the Mohawks in the
month of April, 1055, and after imparting the sacraments to the
captive Ilurons, he had continued his journey to Fort Orange and
New Amsterdam, where the crews of two French ships had
recourse to his ministry. During the next two years, Le Moyne
again braved the perfidious cruelty of the Mohawks. Constantly
menaced with death, constantly bafiling the plots formed against
his life, he never lost courage in his labors among the captives,
and flattered himself with being able to smooth the way for a
sedentary mission. But in the month of August, 1657, he was
retained captive by the tribe, and would have had the glory of
martyrdom had not the Governor of Canada, D'Ailleboust, seized

* Father Frnncia Duperon arrived in Ciiniida in 1638, and died at Cliam-
bly, November 10, 1665.

IN THE UNITED STATES. 3^3

t-a., and d„ri„g t^xt two rfal t he f'";"' ""'' '° *'-
" r' '"'™^»- «?'-' the Cue. t r T"'"" "'"™'' »
. Ti'e Oaondagas were the firstC i f '' ™'' """• ^"'•^'•
-fluenee exerefed over them L tire, ,/'""' ""'°'^ '^ ^o
fi''endofthemis,io„arie,. He saved V," ''"'^^'''>- 'ho
«pt.ves whom he could reseue tltt"! t''* "" ""' ^-"«''
■otaet the chapel of St. Mary" '"T^" ''^'^^ ' ^e had j.reserved
"•^ to assemble there to ehZtV '^"""'"^ ""' ^uron prison-
"«0 a peaceful emba^ seTtb JZ "' "* *- '«'«'" In
""O - aoou as he saw^ t ^rr ''"'"' "' ^outrea..
Moyne set out for the OnondaT „ ""'^''^'^ ^^^'^^^ 'o

P-ee with the tribe. He profited bv r '^ "'"" ''« »"»'"<led
■undredehi,dreu,aud retura'^t Molt^ J *^ '° ''»P«- '"»
;«". This was his last missi i^v '^ '" """"'' "'^"^ust,
froquois. He died at Cap dl Mad,r'°" '° ""^ '^"<' "^^^^

d-^.ve our veneration as fhest^""'' ''"'""" ™-'
the iii-st missionarv who of bi,T T- ^^ ""'J-^d Jogues

«ms of the te Jble Shawls T''"? ''™-^-'<' t° thetl?
efforts of Garaeontie, war continued t '' "' ""^ P'aiseworthy
ada, and it was „n,y on the ' °r^' ""' '^^ "^ ^an^
«« s,g^d at Quebec, with ali hi n„* ^^""' '''«' "'^' Pe»««
-=;« sullen as the bea , whose nam! IT '"'P' "-^ Moh^wi,
*s tribe was vigorou'sl, hasfad t ""• ^"' -»" -'"ted
Vweroy de Tracy made Liusrei VrP"«" "*«'> 'he

;' July, .667, Father Frem B *! T? """^ '" "^^ ""-"i "
for the Mohawi country, nl f'^T ^"'■™ '^^^ Canada '
-oeiates proceeded to the mor e!,::;;!" f '"°"^' "''* «s
^-- Francis Boniface came to s^ ^C: Vt:; 'r^

S24

THE CATHOLIC CHrUCH

; 5

•J

It' I

'IP

i I

conversions became so frequent among the terrible Mohawks — re
alizing a vision of Father Jogues, in -whicli he saw the words
"Laudent nomcn Agni" — that Father Thierry Beschcfer and
Father Louis Nicolas were sent to their assistance. At this
epoch Fatlier Julian Gai'nier was preaching the Gospel to the
Onondagas. Father Stephen do Carheil was among the Cayugas,
•where he built the chapel of St. Joseph. Father Bruyas had
liis residence among the Oneidas, and Father Pierron among
the Senecas, while Fathers Milet and Fremin repaired from town
to town, distributing the benefits of their apostolate on the
various tribes of the league.* We may say that in 1G68 the
cross towered above the five Iroquois cantons, and for sixteen
years Canadian missionaries succeeded each other in the very
heart of the present State of New York. But it was especially
among the Mohawks that the Jesuits obtained the most con-
verts; and in 1673 the two principal villages, Caughnawaga and
Tinniontoguen, were organized as regular parishes, where
schools were opened for the young, while the course of religious
instruction was graduated for the different ages and brought
within the reach of the feeblest minds,

* Father James Fremin, whom we find among the Iroquois in 1656, was
employed there many years, and died at Quebec in 1692.

Father James Bruyas, born apparently at Lyons, arrived at Quebec in
1666, and in the following year visited the Iroquois country. He was alive
in 1703.

Father Julian Gamier, born at Connerai, in the diocese of Mans, nbotit
1643, arrived in Canada in 1662, being still a Bcholastic. He was ordained in
1666, and was yet alive in 1722.

Father Stephen de Carheil arrived from Franco in 1650, and remained
among the Cayugas till 1684, and was then sent to the Ottawa mission. He
died at Quebec in 1726.

Father Francis Boniface died at Qticbec in 1674.

According tc a printed list of Canadian clergy. Father Louis Nicolas
arrived in 1656, and died in 168^. Father Thierry Beschefer arrived in
1686, and died in 1691, but the Jesuit Journal, which is conclusive on tha
point, makes the former arrive in 1664 and the latter in 1665.

Father Milet arrived in 1667, was a prisoner at Oneida from 1689 to 1694,
aad died in 1711.

« THE WITED STATES.

Still it was onlv . • . -"""s- 33,,

'"- or ope,:' rrrt.?;r " "-■«'■ '■»<- «" ^^p.

""O "> that disregard of mo,X 1 f "''° '" "'"'^ ""'•'try
overcome. TJ,e virtue of «: c ^'^f «»«'o"city aI„„o ea'
to tile greatest perils amid the "' >ncessa„tly exposed

*.ed more frightfa, by a awT'™""" "' ""' "«»g^^ «-
Dutch supplied. The neo^hy es "r '"""""'' "■^— «hio; t "e
«-tio„s iu their own fJ^^'J^^f^ '«'. «oo. cruel pe !
"»'s aud dangerous temptatl! ",""'"" ""='» fro™ these
found a Keductiou in Can' d 1, "'"'""■'"^» '-"'^^d t
composing it entirely of cS- ^f ""^ P'o'^^tion of Franc "

f " Baffeix built the church ofs!' 7' *'-"-'. ^^ Father
A pious s,jua,v of the Erie natiot^ t, l"""^"" ^^'''"- d™ Pro,
Oneidas, and whose name :cl .'''"'""" ^"^'^^^ ^y the
fet, to settle there with I fa^, r"" fT"*™"' ™ «-
Indians around her that in u7o2' 'n *' "'"^ ^ ">«"/
f»"hc. comprising sixty person! tk'"^*^ '"""^"^^ '-enty
;«.veiy ministered among trMolI I T™"^' " ^ ™-
Father James de Lambervme Fa^^ *"*' *"■" '«'« '° 1681
'« de Gueslis, favored t], !' "^ ^'"'"'^ ""^ Father \-,i '

»^ when al, the Chrtl ^^^ '*, "" '"eir powe^: 1"

good Indians led to a change of L ; I '"""''™ "f these
'"ds at I,a Prairie not being I' "T "" "'"''"«"<'»' ">«
— ____ga<Iapt«l to support so «a„^. „„j

* r'„ii- „ "^ —

* Father Peter Raff • " ~~ — ■

;f'"a:iS53™£-~ ■■"■

.^Father Vaillan, Jo o„e„; . ' ° """' '" "'« W^bcc

326

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

If! 1 411

Is' '•'I

ill 1676 the mission was transported some leagues up tlic St,
Lawi-encc to Sault St. Louis, or Caugliuawaga, where the ehureli
of St. Francis Xavier du Sault was built by the Iroquois. Even
now the village is occupied exclusively by the descendants of
these Indians, who adhere inviolably to the faith of their pilgrim
sires, transmitted, without interruption, for near two hundred
years.

The admirable fervor of the first converts was a subject of edi-
fication for the missionaries themselves ; and the example of
Catharine Tehgahwita proves what faith can do to elevate a sav-
age nature to an eminent degree of sanctity. This maiden, born
in 1656, and left an orphan at the age of four, felt from child-
liood a strong attachment to Catholicity, and even before receiv-
ing baptism, had made an offering of her virginity to God. All
the persecutions of her relatives to force her to renounce her
generous design fell harmless before her stern resolution ; she
received holy baptism at the age of twenty, and then, in or-
der to give herself entirely to the exercise of her i)iety, she emi-
grated, in 1611, to the Reduction of Sault St. Louis, in Canada ;
there she lived three years in austerity and the practice of the
most sublime virtues, and died in 1600, leaving a memory which
is still in veneration, not only among her tribe, but throughout
Canada. We find in the " Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses" a
sketch of the life of this Christian virgin, abridged by Father
Cholenec from a still existing manuscript life composed by her
confessor. Father Chauchetiere. Father Cholenec relates the pil-
grimages which were made at her tomb, and the miraculous
cures obtained by her intercession, and gives at length the testi-
mony of the Rev. Mr. de la Colombiere, Canon of Quebec, and of
Captain du Lud, Governor of Fort Froutenac, both cured by the
invocation of the venerable Catharine. Many other graces obtained
by her intercession have long made the Canadians desire to see
the process of her beatification begun.

JN THE UNITED STATES.

327

It is the first time that we have had occasion to cite
the " Lettres Edifiantes," and in fact tliat precious collection,
begun by Father Charles Legobien in 1704, and continued after
him by Father J. 13. dii Ilalde, speaks only incidentally of the
missions of the seventeenth century. These last, so far as North
America is concerned, are ''ecounted in the rare collection of
" Jesuit Relations," a series of forty volumes, giving the history
of the French missions in Canada for the years IGll, 1626, and
from 1632 to 1672. But it is, so to speak, impossible to obtain
these Relations, and the years 1654-5 and 1658-9 are not known
to exist.* It seems that the government in Canada took offence
at the narrative of the Jesuit Fathers, and suppressed in France
the volumes already published, forbidding their further impres-
sion. However, the Relations for the years 1673 to 1679 still
exist in manuscript at Rome or in Canada, and Shea, who care-
fully studied the whole collection, has ably selected all the im-
portant facts in his admirable " History of the Catholic Missions
among the Indian Tribes of the United States." The present
Canadian government, more enlightened than its predecessor in
1672, has recently voted funds to reprint the complete series of
the Relations. This will be an eminent service rendered to the
cause of history and religion.

— -—■-—- -.1 - ■■—-■— .I. ,.i ■ I ■ ■ - ■■ ..— ■ ^1 -- ■ I ^

* A learned bibliophile of New York, James Lenox, Esq., has enriched
hia collection with those two rare volumes. Ho has also had the happy idea
of reprinting a small edition of the Relations of 1655-7(5, and of the Rela-
tion of Father Gabriel Druillettes to New England in 1650, and the Relation
of the Travels and Liscoveries of Father James Marquette during 1673 and
the following years. By a refinement of typographic exactitude, Mr. Lenox
has made these editions a complete reproduction of the originals of the sev-
enteenth century. Ho has had type, head, and tail-pieces, so that the vol-
umes due to his taste seem to the most practised eye to have been printed
two centuries ago. It is, as Boileau says,

" Aux Saumaises futurs preparer des tortures."
The gentleman who thus devotes his taste to the reproduction of the Jesuit
Eolations is not prompted, as some imagine, by religious feelings, being a de-
voted Presbyterian, but by a wish to preserve what is rare and valuable in
an historical point of view.

328

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

ill

I
'ill

ill

While emigration to Canada led to the close of the missioi
in the Mohawk territory, causes of a different character put an
end to the labors of the Jesuits among the other Iroquois can-
tons. As long as the Dutch remained in possession of New
Netherland, they merely traded with the Five Nations, without
pretending to obtain of them any act of submission and sun en •
der of their independence ; but on the capture of New York by
the English in 1664, and especially on the arrival of Colonel
Thomas Dongan as governor of that colony in 1G83, a far differ-
ent policy presided over the intercourse between the English
and the Iroquois. Dongan, considering their territory as form-
ing part of the territory of New York, declared himself the
protector of the Five Nations, and displayed remarkable ability
in ruining the French influence in the council of the Iroquois
league. The governor directed bis efforts especially to expel
the Canadian missionaries, and to inspire the Indians with
greater confidence, he promised to send them English Jesuits,
and build them churches in their cantons. These intrigues suc-
ceeded with the simple children of the forest, and towards the
close of 1683 Father Milet had to abandon his Oneida mission,
while Father Fremin, Father Pierron, and Father Garnier retired
from the Senecas. The next } 'iar. Father de Carheil, after being
subjected to every brutality, was driven from the castles of the
Cayugas, and there remained only the two brothers John and
James de Lamberville, the missionaries at Onondaga.

These, for some years more, baffled all Dongan's threats and
the resources of his political craft. They possessed the confi-
dence of the Onondagas, and to all the colonel's injunctions or-
dering them to expel the French Jesuits, the Onondagas answered
that the Fathers did no injury. But what England's power
could not effect, became the consequence of the crime of a
French governor. In 1687, Jacques Rene, Marruis de Denonville,
who commanded in Canada, received orders from France to send

J
c

I-"*' I'ilE I'Nii.jj],

ATis.

529

o™ » certain >,„„,i,„ „f . . , "-■'

I'ad recourse to troachorv M l '^ , " '" """■ "'» governor
«f laftor M„ do r:!;^.' ■"""'«' '"-olf of the ln.Z

'roops surrouaded thorn on ovory ", . 'Tr"''«'^' '^"^"'•''^<'.
f ""s trap wore .out to FrlJi a, I "'■"l " ""''"IW v,-e,i„„'
h-^- At tho new, of this eX ^ P"' '" "'"""» "' tl-o ..„|-
;» the canton. „f the ^r rdTrl"" ™« '" "^ "4
md well-nigh paid with hit k °„""'/°''" * ^"'"''"vlile
'«•. The sachems, however kewto „ "'*'' '"' ^'« g""'"
•--onary to suspect hi,„' 0": 7/"'" "" "°='''-^ "^ "-i^
«.^.t, warning hin, that th; „fd If ^"^^ f''-'^" i"''
«f the young brave., when once hevl r^'' '"' "" '""'^^^
'"'i-rging hi„ not ,0 delay sV ""'^^ *''•' """""g.
™«--on begun twen.y years blfi,,. ' ""' ""^ ""'' «'»'« "f the

During the war, IJT *' '" '««'•*
;-"^ Breslani, l^ ;. ^Ttt '"'^" ^"^' -' "'^o %-
- -vera, ,ea. w.Jl deuLd a.JnTM"'^ ^"'l''-' -'I
fans, who had emigrated to rl , i "• ^^' ^'■"V^"'" Chris-
"■ '- Of France, and IoZT^YT' """"'^ f"'"-"''
I'^g-s of that period. But , hi 7 "'"'^ '" »" "«= '=-"'-
''^Y °^"'-- P-gan countrttn T't^^-P"" *™ 'ho
-de prisoners, thfy were sC e'/"' T'^ ^'"-tians were
Some, too, not taken in arms ZTl "™'^"** '"'■t"''^''.
_____^«the same fate for refusing to

* n.

330

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

I* '

1 1

abuse Christianity. Tho moat courageous of those martyrs were
Stephen de (lanoiiakoa and Frances Oonouhatenha, wliose con-
stancy in the faith of their baptism drew upon them a truly hor-
rible troatmcnt. These generous neophytes confessed Jesus cru-
cified at the stake, while the savages tore out their nails, and
roasted or slashed their bodies ; and to every question wliich
their executioners addressed them, they answered, to their latest
sigh, " We are Christians." All the tribes did not, however,
share this sanguiiuiry rage, and many of the Iroquois desired to
see the missionaries return amongst them. On the peace of
Kyswick in 1G97, the Jesuits hoped to restore their missions, in
spite of the intrigues of the Earl of Bellamont, Governor of New
York, who sent the Dutch pastor Dellius to preach to the Mo-
hawks. The minister failed completely, and did not even take
up his residence among the tribe whom he was commissioned to
convert. The governor employed all means to keep up the Iro-
quois hostilities against Canada, in spite of the treaty signed in
Europe. Maugre his eftbrts, the Five Nations concluded a sep-
arate peace with Canada in IVOI. Fathers James de Lamber-
ville, Julian Garnier, and Vaillant du Gueslis, with a lay brother,
all old Iroquois missionaiies, immediately started from Quebec to
raise their fallen altars amid the Senecas and Onondagas. Dep-
utations of these tribes had called for the Jesuits, and soon after
Fathers James d'Heu and Peter Mareuil joined their comrades
in New York.*

Father Lamberville was escorted to Onondaga by the Sieur de
Marecourt, a man of great popularity among the Indians, and
was well received, only one family opposing him. The English

* Father James d'Heu arrived from France in 1706, and was unfortunately
droivned in 172S (Quebec list). However, he was Superior ut Montreal iu
1729.

Father Peter Mareuil arrived in 1706, died in 1747, according to the list
of Quebec ; but ho died really at the College of Louis le Grand, at Paris, in
1742, as Charlevoix assures us.

'" '"'" ''•^■"•'^1' STATES,
governor Jiad q,. j , "^dl

P>'l'"on of tl.o envoy, of C,. i T '"'"'J''^'' » rl.-'n» for the ex

o ;as.e„ to Ji„„t„„, ,„ eo^ wt, V .' ■""^■■"■"-■villo
o tf.e feats of Father Mareuill"" """?"' "-" «"*..?
Hlaff" the chapel and ,nissi„„ ! ^ T° '^■•""'"='' I"*»™ to
l-y «;;«• 0„ this, Fathe I ^n ■'";' """ '° "^--y "-
"e-y I.fe to Sehnyler, a,freed 1 ' '"'« """ ^e owed his
"■•oto to Father d'II„^'s, ''"=™V""r i™ to Albany ."

•"'■■'y of the statesn,::;';'::;' V"""' '"" '--f"-"-^

"an of great influenee with the 1. "' ''°"''"' » "'•»<>■-

We, and brought Father d'Zf^ri ^r™'"' ^°^ "°'«"oo

d'ans, and though he esonnM ""''o" ""»»» the In-

-o« badfaiie:, be ,;:r:;t': '•:■''• "■'■"« "^^ ^^^ -

oecuped by the Five NaUol 1^ t '" "'" ""-oie terri.ory
''"trance to the eantons on th ,," „ "" ^^^''^'^'^ '-'losed the

^»' -e shall tind in iTsZTT"-'- °' ^■'''"''^■
■■^■;"">e the work of the Jesuit L, '""'''"• ''''""'^ Pioqnet,
-iony of Ne,v Vork ,1. lied;,:, . "7;,;;' '"-■ "ithi„\be'

^ t'^0 r^'-esentatioiL But

THE CATHOLIC CHUllCII

a I.

•1

1*11

I I

thft liifitory of this zealous nmn will be given licntnftor. Tlio
Apostulato of the Jcsiiits hogaii with KutlaT Jogucs in 1042, wan
carriiMl on at intervals for over sixty years, and was arrested, not
by tli(* persecution of the idolaters, but by the ititoKjrancc of
]'rotcstantiHni, which would not suft'er the children of Loyola to
devote themselves to the task of transforming the savages into
Christians. The blood of the martyr and the suffering of the
confessor had not been useless, and now two thousand live hun-
dred Iroquois at Caughnawaga, St. Regis, and at the Lake of
the Two ^^)llntains, still practise Catholicity, and preserve tlio
name of their sires, while many other tribes have disappeared
forever, destroyed by debauchery and war, or absorbed in the
swelling tide of white immigration.

It may be asked how the missionaries proceeded in converting
these savage tribes? In his intwi sting Relation, Father Bressani
answers this question. He gives in some sort the method
which succeeded best among the Ilurons, and which was most
probably employed among the Iroquois :

" We advance the motives of credibility usually assigned by
theologians ; those which answer best are these three : The
first is the conformity of our law and the commandments of
God with the light of reason. The faith forbids nothing that
reason does not equally, and all that faith commands is approved
by reason. . . . Our Indians understand and discuss well ;
they yield frankly to sound reasoning. The second argument
was our writings ; I allude not merely to the Holy Scripture,
but to ordinary writings. By this argument we silenced their
false prophets, or rather charlatans. They have neither books
nor writings of any kind. When, therefore, they told us their
fables of the creation of the world and the deluge, of which they
have some confused ideas, and of the spii'it-land, wo asked them,
* Who told you this ?' they replied, ' Our ancestors.' ' But,'
retorted we, ' your ancestors were men like yourselves, liars like

Tim

^^ THfi UNITED STATES.

JO", ulio often ovn ' ^33

'" 'io saccd book, dictated r ' "° ''""^""J "'«>• -vritten

™:''""""''"rtfe»«a„.ativo„f In • "'"' ""'' '"'*'"> H'o

P--« of ia.|i prep.,,,, ,„, ;• ' f;";o Ju.te,„e„t ,„j „f .,;

tre,„U,„g, as i^ tie Acts J ,' "^ """" ''"'' (i'ar and
Feli. ^"'^ w» read ,t m,cd the „„j„»t j",;^

^^t the most poworfnl o
;- Po-n. I„ ^ J* -S;-"' was that drawn fron, „,.
»"« .n the least his profound ,,,T'" T*' -''». -thou
'"«, as though it were of anoth , ''' '"'"^"^ '" "'« Corinthi

fors undergone in the Z^^ "?' ""^ '''» ™ff-in^ and 1 ;
"on^ and miraculous gifts , ? ,'*° ^'"■<'' "»" oven the revel.,
P-C' hi. Gospel to tT , ;;'°;f '>'f"» -'-'.ad sent .^ C
our Indians."* "'"• *^ ""i "»' J'ositate to speak thul ,o

^Ve have inserted thi^ ; *
f-oid of interest to sue . o trT^ "*' >^'"-* -nnot •.

* Bressani, Brove Eelatioiae.

334:

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

CHAPTER XXI.

i 'I,

PROVINCE OF NEW YORK (1640-1760.)

The Dutch— The English occupation and Governor Dongan— First Colonial Assembly
in 1688— Jesuits at New York- Revolution, and persecution of the Catholics — Pre-
tended negro plot, and execution of the Rev. John Ury.

While the interior of New York was visited with so much
perseverance by the noissionaries, the cities long remained closed
to their preaching. The Dutch were zealous Calvinists, and in
the first chapter of the " Liberties and Exemptions" of the colony,
was impliedly confirmed what was formally expressed in the
amended charter of 1640 : that the Protestant religion, as set
forth by the synod of Dort, should be maintained by the Com-
pany and the Director. According to the decrees of that synod,
no other religion was to be tolerated. Yet the people of New
Netherlands did not evince any special intolerance. We have
seen how charitably and kindly they welcomed the Jesuit Fathers,
Jogues and Bressani, after their countrymen at Fort Orange had
rescued those missionaries from the hands of the Indians. The
ministers themselves. Dominie Megapolensis and Bogardus, set
the example of the most generous cor duct, and we must state the
fact to their honor. During the period of the Dutch rule, the
only case of oppression on the Catholics was the prosecution in
1658 of a Frenchman by the Sheriff" of Breuckelen (Brooklyn),
for refusing to contribute to the support of the Rev. Dominie
i^olhemus. The delinquent, for insolently pleading the frivolous
excuse that he was a Catholic, was fined twelve guilders. There
was in this, however, no persecution of the Catholics specially, for

^^ TBE UmTEB STATES.

fT,. ^^^iTJt'D STATES

t^e same day an En.lkhr.. ^35

I* W true thaf fl. ^ "°'

Dominie Me„«„ ■ ''^^ ''^''^ "ere some as „. , "* '""^ »»«

P'»s for the good „fl^ ""o"?'" » office J , ^"* "■«
P"W« good mtt o/^ ""'°°y' -here he hid , '""t"" "" *»

^"nfrast with r ''° Coveraor Don„ . ^ "' "■ "■"ny

>Mo;rLrif^ r'"--^»^^'edttf' """
first Ieffisi„ti„. „ .""""''ted for tK„ "" '« 'iem. To

»<i govet LTr^y. "-^ -,o„^ h vit r"™"*- °f 'he

'-^■"ess t admi, «' ^-0 Pfea.„re of hf 'r "" "■- ™'^<'

^""t which the " ' '''"P'^ '» « ^iare „(/""'' ^"^ "'is

I !

336

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

passed October 30, 1683, was a charter of liberties, declaring
that " no person or persons, which profess faith in God by Jesus
Christ, shall at any time be any ways molested, punished, dis-
quieted, or called in question for any diflference of opinion or
matter of religious concernment, who do not actually disturb the
civil peace of the province ; but that all and every such person
or persons may, from time to time, and at all times, freely have
and fully enjoy his or their judgments or consciences, in matters
of religion, throughout all the province — they behaving them-
selves peaceably and quietly, and not using this liberty to licen-
tiousness, nor to the civil injury or outward disturbance of
others." By another article, all denominations then in the prov-
ince were secured the free exercise of their discipline and forms,
and the same privilege extended to such as might come. It was
only by favor of such a liberality that Colonel Dongan could
hope to obtain toleration for Catholicity ; but these laws making
all equal, and thus harmonizing with the avowed doctrines of
Protestantism, did not survive the Catholic rule which had pro-
mulgated them. The New York Assembly of 1691 declared
null and void the acts of the Assembly of 1683, and instead of
the Charter of Liberties, passed a Bill of Eights, which expressly
excluded Catholics from all participation in the privileges which
it conferred. It had been the same in Maryland, where Catholics
had first proclaimed religious liberty, and where the Protestants,
who soon gained the ascendency, proscribed the Papists and
their creed.

We have seen in a previous chf^pior that Governor Dongan
used every effort to stop the French Jesuit mission-?, in order to
destroy at the same time the influence which France possessed in
the councils of the Iroquois league. Such hostility in time of
profound peace gave rise to complaints on the part of Louis XIV.,
and James II. ordered his representative to favor the enterprises
of the Fathers, instead of thwarting them, with all his power.

'" ™^ ™'r^D m'^rm.

tJ-^ cantons T^' ? "'^^^ <■» Englisni ^ ' ""*'»"« "f

i«»-. «».hilated !^ f ''°''^^". Mowed b/ r„ ''^^^""O
Nations. Can-.' „ "P* "^ «» aDn.t.i ? "'eWhrow of

°f Je»"s, tl« ,?r" "^ fi"" a Ro„rc^ f ™™g the RV«

^°* "t iharc^'^;'-^ "^-■'^ - wrr?' "^^^^

ei'yfrom 1683 , , '""^.J^'ther Thorn, "^'^-'dcd at New

>'»d, a„d ' '" "««. 'hough h XaS; '"^''"'^> ^^

Father He«„,"' . """'o « I7l9 ., ,1 ^*"^ ''ent back to

«» i-ia«t,7,r;T 7 '•" ^-^-» *» z/ "'^"'^-^o-

''"'her Charles e? "«'' *" «»<) him hM ,' """^ '''""^d
These relJ ^ ""^ ^'^ in «,„ „ , '" Maryland in Jas*

r -ay judge b;^Wr'''"''''''-'oo „:;!"* '0 °P«« a
that Coli !)„„ " .'"'^ formerly „r„.j ! "'°'^«™or of Boston

f»'-, and Mntd^dt^^""^^^ ^-'^'^^'^^^^ "Po»
hw uoboddy imi,;, ' *'' contribute their . 7 "■"' '''"'««

years later, greatl„ ">'' '^^'h, who wr^

fe ^ovorn'm^: 'irr-'ates 'he oLZ^ZT *^" **'

«»■ 'he Protestan, ° '"'''*'"» "=« whole Z ! ' ^^^^ «»

^ * O'CaJIao-haii. T^.»... ~~ — _

'"•28. Bayie^r, Brief
15

-I

338

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

settlers, and because a Latin-school was opened. The appoint-
ment of a Catholic as collector of the port enabled Jacob Leisler,
a fanatical and ambitio . merchant, to create some excitement
by a refusal on his part to pay the duties to a Catholic ; and for
this conduct he has been lauded, even in our day, as a champion
of liberty ! He became the leader of those who refused all social
intercourse with Catholics ; and when the news arrived of the
fall of James, Nicholson, the Lieutenant-governor of Andross, the
successor to Dongan, found that Leisler was plotting to seize
him, and fled. Leisler immediately, with the help of his satel-
lites, seized the government, and although the members of the
council sought to uphold the government in being, they were
compelled to fly to Albany. Every means was now resorted to
to keep alive the feeling which had raised him to pc-wer, and it is
impossible to read without a blush of shame the numerous docu-
ments of the period collected in the Documentary History of New
York — depositions of men that they had seen the lieutenant-gov-
ernor at Mass ; that the Papists on Staten Island, where Dongan
resided, had threatened to cut the tnroats of the inhabitants and
burn the town ; that Mr. de la Prairie had arms in his house for
fiity men, and that a priest was concealed in the fort, where a
good part of the garrison consisted of Irish Catholics.

The popular hostility excited by such means doubtless drove
from New .York most of the Catholics who had settled there
during the reign of James II., and if we can rely on the census
of 1696, there were then only seven Papists, or, at most seven
Papist families in New York. The smallness of this n anber
should have calmed the fears of the Protestants, but it was not
so, and in 1*700 an act was passed, of which the following was
the preamble : " Whereas, divers Jesuits, Priests, and Popish
missionaries have, of late, come, and for some time have had
their residence in the remote parts of this province, and others of
his majesty's adjacent colonies, who, by their wicked and subtle

£
t

m I

IN THE UNITED STATES
insinuations, indaaWously labored to ,u, , '
d'-aw the Indian, from aJ'T: ^ t "''' *''"''=■ ^^ "if-
Majest,, and to e.ci.e 1 i/ ^'l r".'" '" ""' '"'='^''
open hostility .gainst hi, Mtl-? "'°" ■•"''^"■°" »<1

onaotingpartwaaa, cruelas thlTl ^f"'"''""'"''" *«• The
that every priest connng '„ J Z " '™ '■''''°- I' ''""^-'^i

vember, I700, or re„aini 1 af,; ^7.°" *' ""^ '''^' "^ ^O'
««d aecounted an incendiary l^ , ^ """"' "^ " ""^""-^
and safety, and an e„e™y t Th " ^*" "' *" P""'" P-e
■». adjudged to sufi-er porpetu, " 1?™"'° ■■^'«'™' ='■«' ^Wl
r™ ^"^ ■«- -taken, tCp LX TT'"'' " '^ »'*«
that harbored a priest was madeTabfe to « ""■' ^"^ ""^ ™^
and to stand three days on Z^^ '/'"' "' '^""> «"^"ing,
tl>o peopleof New Yo'i tos, e^h ^ " '"' ''°"^™' '^
apparently by earlier legislattn !f w T^'^^'y ^'='' '"^Pi'ed
-yeot, „., 4e wort oft I io^";^,"^'""" ™ ""^ '-«
governor, and was so oppo ed b ' Th "' ^^"^'»»'' 'i'-

tt-ugh his Council only'y It"^,, ; "T "■^' ''^ S<" ''

»f votmg. The .e« year Q^TmT 'T '™"'"'^> "■^'
»-ence to all the iuhabi Jta o7 New f, '' """'^y <>( con-
Such intolerance, it i, evident tiff ^^' '"'■''"" '--i"«
-■".gration, and the few o the & Jr b """^ ^" C""""-
subjected to „any (rial, ao *! ''*" '"»*'*<• "'«■•« were

-;;i^, any calaJty to^rr^^tdr ™ ^"^ '»
t'a hohcs, and in the absence of „, 7 ! ^ "^^ """"selves
-•"0 to fulfil the duties 0^^^^^' "^"-'' *' «s i,np„s.

---eene„ve„e4::rr^-

I'!'' I

»? i!

J I
m !

fill

'i. ?

im t

840

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

the Dutch in numbers and influence, is the execution of the
unfortunate John Ury, against v/hom the popular hate was
excited, in consequence of the behef that he was a Catholic
priest. In the early part of 1741, the city of New York, which
then contained 20,000 inhabitants, was seized with one of those
inexplicable panics to which assemblages of men are more sub-
ject than individuals. A rumor, arising out of a number of fires
in different parts of the town, accused the negroes of a plot to
burn the city and massacre the inhabitants. On this groundless
suspicion the whole people were thrown into the great st alarm.
The lieutenant-governor, George Clarke, who, in his dispatch
of the 2 2d of April, ascribes the fire in the fort to an accident,
which he fully explains, by the 15th of May had discovered a
horrid conspiracy and plot,* in consequence of which he offered
a reward of a hundred pounds sterling and a free pardon to any
white person who would reveal the authors of the plot, and then
an indented servant, named Mary Burton, came forward to
accuse a number of persons of being concerned in the conspiracy.
The prosecutions were instituted with a disgusting thirst for
blood, and carried on without throwing any hght on the mystery
which they sought to unveil. Three months passed in illusory
interrogatories, and three persons had been hung as authors of
the plot, when on the 19th of June the lieutenant-governor, as
deluded as the worst,f took it into his head to oflfer pardon to all
who should confess before the first of July. " The po r negroes,"
says an impartial reporter, " being extremely terrified, were anx-
ious to take the only avenue of safety that was offered, and each
strove to tell a story as ingenious and horrible as he could man-
ufacture. The terrible cry of Popery was now raised, which
struck terror to the hearts of all, and led to the sacrifice of an
amiable and interesting clergyman, of whose innocence there can

* New York Colonial Documents, vi. 186.

t Ibid. vi.

IN THE UNITED OTATE3.

341

S 01

.i
.-1

r, as

to all

oes,"

■,-

anx-

■^

each.

nan-

hich

f an

can

scarcely remain a doubt, so absurd was the charge against him,
and so feebly was it supported."*

It was now that, for the first lime. Mary Burton denounced
John Uiy. This man was arrested as a Catholic priest, tried as
a Catholic priest, condemned and executed as a Catholic priest,
and yet to this day a mystery so complete hangs over his fate
that it is utterly impossible to say whether he was either a
CatholiO or a priest. Although it would have been enough for
him to pi'ove that he was not a priest, to have dissipated the
hatred gathered against him, and thus probably escaped an
ignominious death, Ury never formally denied the accusation,
or defended himself fi yni the charge of being a Catholic. Al-
though uncertainty rests* on his real character, it is most certain,
however, that Ury was condemned only because judge, jury,
counsel, and people believed him an ecclesiastic of the dreaded
Church of Rome ; and the crime of intention, if not of fact, rests
with full force on the fanatical population of New York in ''741.

All that is certainly known' of Mr. John Ury is, that he was
the son of a secretary of the South Sea Comp' . According
to a strange journal of his published by Hoi'semanden, in his ac-
count of the trial, he arrived from Europe at Philadelphia, Feb-
ruary, 1*739, and opened a little school in New Jersey, and then,
in November, 1*740, came to reside in New York. Here he
taught, and baptized some children. Several witnesses proved
that he shut himself up in his room with several persons to cel-
ebrate r^. ^ious ceremonies; that he had wafers made, and a
stand in the form of an altar ; that he preached frequently, and
had candles lighted in the daytime. The only doubt can be,
whether Mr. Ury was a Catholic priest or a nonjuring Angli-

* American Criminal Trials, by Peleg W. Chandler (Boston, 1S44), i. 222.
See U. S. Catholic Magazine, v. 678. " At first," says Governor Clarke, on
August 24:th, " we thought it was only projected by Iluson and the tiegroes,
but it is now apparent that the liand of Popery is in it."

342

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

ii!

^;:i

i^'"

can ; but in an able dissertation on the subject, B. U. Campbell,
Esq., proves clearly that the second hypothesis is inadmissible,
because CJry would not have .. iled, in that case, to exculpate
himself from the charge of being a priest ; while under the for-
mer hypothesis, the fear of compromising the few Catholics of
New York would compel him, on his trial, to be silent as to his
priestly character. He was not at all thought of in connection
with the plot until long after Huson's execution, when an ab-
surd letter of General Oglethorpe's, declaring that Jesuits in the
interest of the Spaniards were in all the towns, filled all minds
with panic fears of Jesuits in disguise ; and every effort was
made to discover one. On the 20th of June, the lieutenant-gov-
ernor wrote : " There was in town, some time ago, a man who is
said to be a Romish priest, who used to be at Huson's, but has
disappeared ever since the discovery of the conspiracy, and is not
now to be found."* On his trial, he defended himself ably, but
saw the evident impossibility of obtaining a just hearing, the
fanatical hatred of the Catholic religion dtmanding his blood.f
After his conviction, Mr. Ury asked a short reprieve, to enable
him to prepare for death ; and on its expiration, was hung, on
the 29th of August, 1741. Eleven negroes were burnt alive at
the stake, eighteen hung, and fifty transported to the West In-
dies, in expiation of this pretended plot ; and Mr. Campbell thus
concludes his interesting dissertation on the most innocent of
these victims of a popular delusion :

" The melancholy fate of the Reverend John Ury was one of
peculiar hardship. Accused of an infamous crime, without coun-
sel to advise or defend him, he was tried by an excited tribunal,
whose strongest prejudices were invoked against him, on account
of his faith and religious character ; and he was convicted upon

* New York Colonial Documents, vi. 198.

t Seo Horsemanden, Account of the Negro Conspiracy.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

343

at
11-

. 1

the testimony of profligato and perjured witnesses. Doomed to
the death of a felon, he met his fate with manly fortitude and a
Christian resignation. As lie believed that his sacerdotal char-
acter wiia the cause of his condemnation, it would have been a
consolation in his last moments to have declared himself a Cath-
olic priest. But r.o such an acknowledgment would have com-
promised those friends who had shown him hospitality and kind-
ness, his sense of honor and gratitude restrained him from au
avowal that would have conferred upon his death the dignity of
martyrdom."*

The fearful trial of which ',ve have spoken shows that in 1*741
there were some Catholics m New York ; but they scarcely
durst avow it to each other, and this state of intimidation lasted
till the Revolutionary War. Father Josiah Greaton was the only
Catholic priest in Philadelphia in 1739, and it is probable that
Mr. Ury was in correspondence with him, for Judge Horsemau-
den admits that the dying speech of the priest was printed at
Philadelphia by his friends, soon after his execution ; but this
version is unfortunately lost.f

But Ury was not the only victim to hatred of Catholicity.

Of the negroes arrested as concerned in the plot, some were
Spanish negroes, taken on a Spanish vessel in time of war, and
sold as slaves, instead of being treated as prisoners, for they were
freed men. Mast, however, of those executed were negroes raised
in the colony by English or Duxch families. The former showed
education, talent — all that constitutes a man ; the latter were

* Life and Times of the Most Rev. Joiin Carroll, U. S. Catholic 'iagazino,
vi, 38.

+ The only authority for these trials is Ilorsemanden's book, " The New
York Conspiracy, or a History of the Negro Plot, &c., New York, 1744."
Chandler, already cited, pronounces the whole a delusion, and believes that
Mr. Ury was not a priest, but a nonjuring minister. Mr. Campbell con-
cludes that he was a priest ; Bishop Bayley expresses no opinion ; and Mr.
Shea adopts Chandler's view of the matter.

344

THE CATHOLIC CHUllCPI

like dumb cuttle. Unaided by a lawyer — for every member of
the bar was arrayed against them — the Spanish negroes took ob-
jections which certainly would have woicfhed with any but a
prejudiced judge ; yet, in spite of all tlicir arguments and testi-
mony, they were condemned. The New York negrocw made no
attempt at defence, and, indeed, were incapable of any. They
made any accusation or admission that was asked. At the stake,
the diifennce was even greater : the poor native negroes were
led out like so many brutes, unattended by any clergyman, with
no attempt to convert them, but chained to the stake, and
burned amid their howls of despair. The conduct of the Span-
ish, and consequently Catholic negroes, was striking even to the
savage justice, Horsemanden, who chronicles the plot. Priest
there was none to prepare them for death ; they were left to
themselves, and yet a few brief words of the justice speak a eu-
logy on the Catholic religion, which could make such a different
result : " Juan de Sylva, the Spanish negro condemned for the
conspiracy, was this day executed according to sentence : he was
neatly dressed in a white shirt, jacket, drawers, and iitockings,
behaved decently, prayed in Spanish, kissed a crucifix, insisting
on his innocence to the last."*

* Metropolitan for 1856, p. 270.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

3io

CHAPTER XXII.

»»TB or K.W VO«K-(,„,.,„„,,
Constitution of the Stat —Th

«'T W„,.; b„t ,!,o city of No To ? T^' "' ""= K"™'"""-

""" wa, the tot largo town ' t T' "■" ^'•»"'''^'> «« ^0,

On the 3I.t of M,,y, m^ZT'^f' '^ ""^ ^""* '«"P«

P'"-Po»o „t Kingston, on the" 2 Im ^T'""""' »■=* 'or thi»

"■«»", as propoted, ^.v he L ' ""'' ""• ™o Consti-

, -^h foreigners as eL^o to rt i.tt tl "4 """" "' "»'"^"'-"ff

■»ent that every foreigner shou d • K^ '""''°*" "" ™ •™«"<'-
log.a«e and subjeetion to a "Iv 'T ""' ^""""'"'^ ^" "l"
te-tate, and State, in all Itl "' '^ "'"=" ''"«' '"'"-. I'o-
»Pi'e of the efforts of setenl T ''T"""""' '""^ ''"» '" »"<1 i"
;"<". Livingston, the Z^er:* t^t'lf"? ^"^" ^' ''""'^
fo^gn Catholie, a Lafayette, Pul si D tt"'"'' ^''"^ »
oouW not become a citizen of tl,. t T' ., '''^' "'■ Kosciusko,
^';'- of things lasted ffl 1 89 wh .f """' ''"'■'^ ' -«• «"
"f «.e U..i.«l States, reaiv^ 'ote',; 2 T '°^^™'"^"'

,5°. *^ """="''<"' of naturali-

h'l

III!*'

346

THE CATIIOIilC CIILIUCH

zation, HiiiHjIIccl virtually tlio rcHcrvcs aii<l ivslrictions contained
in tliti Constitution of the State of New York.*

TUi' clause relative to tlio liberty of worship was thus in tho
ConHtitution as proposed : "Frc' toleration of religious prufeswion
and worshij ,hall forever hereafter he allowed to all niaidviii<l."
I'his clause canie up for debate on the 20th of May, and ^^r. J;iy
did not fail to ofter an amendujent. He wished to tolerate in
the State the presence of no Catholic who did not deny on oath
the power in the priesthood of remitting sins. This restriction
was too absurd to be entertained by tlio Convention ; it was
withdrawing with one hand the liberty proti'ered by the other ;
but Jay craftily drew up another, to exclude Catholics ; and tho
article of the Constitution was adopted with his anienduient, in
these terms : " Provided that the liberty of conscienoe hereby
granted shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentious-
ness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of
tho State."

These acts, and like ones in other States, to which, as we have
seen. Father Fleming alluded, soon after the close of tho war,
show what ignorance of our history has led to the assertions that
the American people never have, since their birth as a nation,
performed one act of hostility to the Catholic religion, and that
their first act, on winning their independence, was to repair tho
injustice of the mother country towards the Church, and place
Catholics, in their religion, on a footing of equahty with Protest-
ants. England tolerated Catholicity in Canada, but the new re-
publics refused to follow the step.

But while the l^ritish government favored the Catholics in
Canada, it prevented all public exercise of their worship at New
York during its possession of that city. Anglican fanaticism
was displayed in an especial manner in 1778. In February of

* JouriKil of Provincial Convention, 846.

liavo
war,
that
tion,
that
tho
[ilaco
itest-
re-

Is in

Tew

kism

IN THE UNITED STATES.

847

that year, a largo Frendi man-of-war was taken by the English
in Chcsapeako liay, and l>rought on to New York to bo con-
demned. The chaplain of tiiis vessel was Mr. l)e la Motte, of
tlio Order of St. Augustine ; and, like the oflicers, ho was put
on parole, and allowed to visit the city freely. The few Catho-
lics of New York begged Mr. De la Motto to grant (hem the
satisfaction of hearing Mass ; and the chaplain solicito'^ permis-
sion from the British commaiKler, but received a peremptory re-
fusal. Whether ho misunderstood the reply, or resolved to dis-
regard it, Mr. De la Motte celebrated the holy mysteries rbr the
poor people, who in all probability assisted for the first time in
many years. But the chaplain was arrested for the act, and
strictly confined in prison till he was exchanged.*

As soon as tho colonies opened negotiations and formed ai
alliance with France, the English party sought to identify their
cause with that of Protestantism, and to excite the fanaticism of
the populace by presenting as a danger for the Reformation,
either liberty of worship or the French alliance. The honors
paid by Americans in the funeral ceremonies of the army of
France were presented as religious treasons; and we read in
Rivington's Royal Gazette of December 11, 1*782: "On the
4th of November the clergy and selectmen of Boston paraded
through the streets after a crucifix, and joined in a pit. -.- ^ion for
praying a departed soul outr of purgatory ; and for this tney gave
the example of Congress and other American leaders on a former
occasion at Philadelphia, some of whom, in the iieight of their
zeal, even went so far as to sprinkle themselves with what they

* Greenleaf 8 History of the Cburclies of New York. Bishop Bayley,
Sketch of the Catholic Church, p. 35. The prison in which Mr. De la
Motte was confined was the Old Sugar-house, which, but a few years since,
was standing beside the Post-office, in Liberty-street. The church now
used as a Post-office was used by the English troops ns a rl<iing-school, and
for a time as a hospital ; and the confessor of the faith was doubtless con-
fined here also.

11*

348

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

I:"

I'm 1

call holy water."* General Arnold, who endeavored to sell his
native land to England, had also been scandalized by tlie tolera-
tion which Catholics were beginning to enjoy; and if we may
believe the celebrated traitor, his conscience did not permit him
to remain faithful to a party which thus sacrificed the essential
interests of Protestantism. In his address to the inhabitants of
America, Arnold laments that the great interests of the country
" were dangerously sacrificed to the partial views of a proud, an-
cient, and crafty foe ; regards her as too feeble to establish their
independence ; charges her with being an enemy to the Protest-
ant faith ;" and in the proclamation to the ofiicers and soldiers of
the Continental army, he says that *' he wished to lead a chosen
band of Americans to the attainment of peace, liberty, and safety,
and with them to share in the glory of rescuing their native
country from the grasping hand of France, as well as from the
ambitious and interested views of a desperate party among them-
selves, who had already brought the colonies to the very brink of
destruction." Even their last stake, religion, he represented to
be in such danger as to have no other security than what de-
pended upon the exertions of the parent country for deliverance.
In proof or illustration he asserted a fact upon his own know-
ledge, viz., that he had lately seen their mean and profligate
Congress at Mass for the soul of a Roman Catholic in purgatory,
and participating in the rites of a Church, against whose anti-

* Freneau's poems, p. 288. This republican poet cites it to explain the four
following lines, which he puts into Rivington's mouth :

" If the greatest among them submit to the Pope,
What reason have I for indulgence to hope ?
If the Congress themselves to the chapel did pass,
Ye may swear that poor Jemmy would have to sing Mass."

Bivington was a bookseller, who published a Tory paper, and had a shop
in St. Paul's Churchyard. He kept also a coffee-house, much frequented
by the officers, many of whom, when they evacuated the city, forgot to pay
hire.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

349

Christian corruptions their pious ancestors would have witnessed
in their blood.*

The English army evacuated New York and set sail for Europe
on the 25th of Novf"iiber, 1783, and it is probable that Father
Farmer, who had organized a congregation previous to the war,
and who still resided at Philadelphia, seized the first opportunity
to revisit his little flock of Catholics at New York.'t- The part
taken by France had rendered the clause introduced by Jay a
nullity, and no obstacle existed to the open celebration of the
Catholic worship. A tradition preserved in the city tells us that
the first chapel was a loft over a carpenter'? ^hop, and Mr. Camp-
bell, in his version of the triidition, states that service was actually
performed in 1781 or 1782. This must have been outside of the
city, where the English exercised less influence ; but it seems
very doubtful. Although it is impossible to prove Father Far-
mer's presence in New York in 1782, it is beyond all doubt that
he visited the city in the following year. In one of his letters he
says that about the month of December, 1783, he spent five days
at Fishkill among the Canadian refugees, in order to revive the
faith among them ; and the missionary could scarcely have gone
from Philadelphia to Fishkill without passing through New York.
Father Farmer's mission 'comprised New York and New Jersey ;
and even in 1785, when there were three priests in New York,
Father Fanner directed them from Philadelphia.

The restoration of peace and the assembling at New York of
the foreign ministers, gave the Catholics more energy and cour-
age. They even solicited the use of a room in the Exchange for
the purposes of divine worship, and though the authorities re-
jected the petition, heard Mass in Water-street, in or near the

* Dodsley's Annual Register for 1781, p. 47, cited in the American Celt,
June 2, 1855.

t It is impossible to fix the date of his visits to New York, and of tho89
prior to the war we have only vague tradition.

1^:

350

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

residences of Don Thomas Stoughton, the Spanish consul, Oi
of Don Diego de Gardoqui, the minister of the same power, who
took up his residence in New York in 1785, when it became the
temporary seat of the Federal government. Hardie, in his de-
scription of New York, also speaks of the halls hired by the
Catliolics in 1784 and 1785 to meet on Sunday in prayer; and
Oreenleaf tells us that prior to 1786 they used as a church "a
building erected for public pui'poses in Vauxhall Garden, situate
on the margin of the North Eiver."* In 1785 an act of incor-
poration was obtained by St. Peter's Church from the State of
New York, and early in 1786 a lot was purchased in Barclay-
street to erect the first Catholic church in New York. On the
Feast of St. Charles Borromeo, patron of his Catholic Majesty,
the Spanish ambassador iaid the corner-stone, and his sovereign,
Charles III., allotted a considerable sum to aid in erecting the
holy temple. The French consul, Mr. St. John de Crevecoeur,
was also one of its chief benefactors.

At this epoch Father Farmer continued to be the vicar for
New York of Father John Carroll, the prefect-apostolic ; but he
did not reside there permanently, and other priests actually
settled there exercised the functions of the ministry. In the
mouth of October, 1784, Father Charles 'Whelan, an Irish Fran-
ciscan, arrived at New York, and asked Father Farmer to be
employed as a missionary. Father Whelan had been a chaplain
on board one of the vessels in Admiral de Grasse's fleet, which
was defeated by Admiral Rodney on the 12th of April, 1786,
and was taken prisoner in that great naval battle. After revisit-
ing Ireland he came over to America with his two brothers,
whom he induced to settle there. Father Whelan had his eccle-
siastical recommendations in regular form, but he had no appro-
bation from the Congregation of the Propaganda at Rome, and

* History of the Churches of New York, p. 833.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

351

at that period the apostolic-prefect was authorized to graiit facul-
ties only to such as were seut by the Propaganda. This restric-
tion seemed very embarrassing to Father John Can'oll, who used
every endeavor to obtain more ample faculties from Rome. Yet
the measure was dictated by prudence ; it sheltered the United
States from priestly adventurers, and it would have saved Father
Carroll himself many trials and chagrins if he had not solicited
the removal of a restriction really beneficial to the future of the
Church. Father Whelan accordingly at first obtained only
power to say Mass ; but availing himself of the powers he had
in Ireland, he proceeded to hear confessions and celebrate mar-
riage. This led to a long struggle between him and Father
Farmer, in which the latter's authority was not always respected.
At last, in the month of July, a rescript of the Propaganda ar-
rived, and enabled Father Carroll to regulate the position of
Father Whelan.

But scarcely had the affairs of the Church in New York seemed
to be restored to tranquillity, when new troubles arose to sadden
it. Towards the close of 1*785, a second Irish Frauv^iscan, Father
Andrew Nugent, an-ived at New York, and endeavored to force
himself on the ecclesiastical authorities. As he was a better
preacher than Father Whelan, the laity immediately took the
preacher's part,* and asked Father Farmer to withdraw Father
Whelan. The good Jesuit having endeavored to pacify them,
the trustees threatened to apply to the Legislature to obtain a
law enabling them to dismiss a clergyman, when they became

* " A good preacher, alas ! is all that some want, who never approach
the sacraments," wrote Father Farmer. At this time, the Catholics of New
York took steps to get from Ireland Father Jones, a Franciscan at Cork, who
was called a " great preacher." But that religious did not yield to their
entreaties. " The diiferent sectaries have scarce any other test to judge of a
clergyman, than his talents for preaching, and our Irish congregations, such
as New York, follow the same rule," wrote Father Carroll, on the 15th of
December, 1785. Campbell, in U. S. Catholic Magazine, vi. 102.

! (

}i,.'

f.'Si

U
\\>,

852

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

dissatisfied with him. All attempts at conciliation proved nso-
iess, and at Christmac, 1*785, the trustees decided that the Sunday
collectiou should no longer be given to Father Whelan. This
was the only resource of the missionary, and after remaining at
his post till the 12th of February, 1786, he resolved to leave
New York, and join his brother at Johnstown, forty-five miles
from Albany. Father Whelan intended to return at Easter, but
affairs were not arranged in the interval, and the prefect, whose
confidence he had preserved, empowered him to found a mission
in Kentucky.

By the retreat of Father Whelan, Father Nugent's party tri-
umphed, and hoped to have their favorite as pastor. The latter,
disregarding his want of regular powers, announced that he
would hear confessions; and Father Farmer, announcing this im-
prudent conduct to the Very Rev. Mr, Carroll, formally requested
the suspension of Father Nugent. But it seems that the Prefect-
apostolic preferred to temporize, for fear of greater scandals, in
case the pi-iest openly disowned his authority. This melancholy
condition of affairs continued till November, 1*787, when Father
Carroll committed the parish of New York to Father William
O'Brien, a Dominican Father from Dublin. Father Nugent re-
mained at New York, though without exercising the ministry,
and Bishop Bayley found on the minutes of St. Peter's Church,
tlxat in 1790 the trustees made a collection to pay the passage of
their ex-pastor, who embarked for France in the Telemaque.*

We must avow that nothing is more sad than the commence-
ment of the Church in New York. Disobedient priests, rebel-
lious a* n usurping laymen ! But this picture should serve as a
Jessou .0 American Catholics, as Mr. Campbell justly observes :
*' It will show the pernicious tendency of the trustee system, to re-
mark, that at the period of this presumptuous interference of the

* Bayley, Catholic Church in New York, p. 49.

111

IN THE UNITED STATES.

353

ill,
of

X-

k\-
a

fcs:
Ire-
Ihe

trustees of the Catholic congregation cf New York with the
spiritual government of the Church, they were not in possession
of an edifice of their own in which to perform divine worship,
but were under the necessity of hiring a room for the purpose."*
Yet, of a Catholic population of one hundred, about forty ap-
proached the sacraments ; and, to maintain the devotion of this
little nucleus of the faithful, Father Farmer made frequent jour-
neys to New York. He continued these periodical visits till
shortly before his death, which occuiTed at riiiladelphia in 1786 ;
and after him, Father O'Brien succeeded in extending piety and
pacifying the troubled minds. Thus, amid the cockle, the good
grain showed itself at New York ; and in spite of the preten-
sions and exactions of the trustees, we cannot refuse them a cer-
tain merit for preserving the name of Catholics amid the jarring
sects of Protestantism, and for having built the first church,
wliich, for twenty-three years, was the only shrine of the faith iu
New Y^ork.f But were they really Catholics ? We might al-
most doubt it, from the writings of the best known of them,
Hector St. John de Crevecceur.

This personage, born at Caen, in Normandy, of a noble family,
in 1731, probably bore the name of St. Jean ; and his long stay
in England and America doubtless induced him to adopt that of
St. John. At the age of sixteen, he went to England, and
thence, in 1754, to America, wbere he displayed great energy as
a pioneer. But wher the Revolution broke out, he lost much by
the ravages of the tories and Indians. Wishing to return to
Europe in 1780, he obtained a safe-conduct to go to New York,
then in the hands of the English. Y^'et he was detained ai, a pris-

* U. S. Catholic Magazine, vi. i48.

+ The first trustees were Hector St. John de Crevecceur, Consul of France,
Jose Roiz Silva, J. Stewart, and Henry Duffy. The first Mass was said in
Si. Peter's by Father Nugent, November 4th, 1786. The sacristy, portico,
and pewb were not finished till 1792.

354:

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

oner for three months, and having reached France by the way ol*
Irehiud, was appointed, by the Minister of the Marine, French
Consul at New York, He accoidinglj' returned to that city on
the 19th of November, 1783, anl his first care wa& to call upon
Mr. William Seton, the fatlior-in-law of the future foundrtss of
the Sisters of Charily at Emmetsburg. Mr. Setou hnd rendered
great service to Mr. St. John, in 1780, in ijbtainint;- liis release
from prison, a)id the hitter now sought to obtain tidings of his
wife ana cbiidron, whom he had loft on his farm ; bui, he had
the afflic don to learn tli;)t during his absence his wife had die J,
liis house been burnt, itri ito children carried off by the Indians.
His children, however, carried riually to Boston, had been recov-
ered by Mr. Setoa, and V'O 2 rcotoied to their father's arms.
During his stay abroad, be published in English his " Letters of
an Americaa Farmer."' of which he issued also a French edition,
dedicated to the infamous Abbe Raynal. In this book, Mr. St.
John shows himself an adherent of the philosopbic school, and
profoundly indifferen' to religion. He advances this religious in-
difference as the striking point of the American character, and
pleasantly details its advantages. Such were the sentiments of
the preside I !, of the trustees of the ftrst Catholic church in New
York ; and we need not wonder if the body shov/ed itself rebel-
lious to its pastor.*

* Letters of an Americau Farmer, written to a friend in England, by
Hector St. John, a Farmer in Pennsylvania. The letters are addressed to
W. S***n., Esq. (William Seton), and tho. dedication (dated Albany, May 17,
17S1) to Gen('ral Lafayette. The French edition is edited by the cider
LacretcUe. The work ran through several editions, and was much en-
larged, iiii also wrote "Voyage dans la Haute Penusylvanie," Paris, 1801.
The Diction ,iire Ilistorique de Bouillet transforms him into "Sir John da
Creveci-eur, an American Economist." He returned to France in 1793, and
iliad in 1813.

IN THE UNITiJJ STATES.

355

CHAPTER XXIII.

STATE AND DIOCESE OF NEW YOIIK (1787-1818.)

Father O'Brien and the yelloVfover in Now York— The negro, Peter Toussaint — The
Abb6 Sibourg — Fothers Kohlmann and FenwJjk — Erection of an episcopal See at
Now York— lit. Kov. Luke Concanen, first bii<hop— His death at Naples— Father
Benedict Fcnwick, administrator— The New York Literary Institution — Father Fen-
wick and Thomas Paine — Father Kohiinann and tlie secrecy of tho confessional.

The rising Cliurch of New York, so vexed for some years, at
last fouud rest under the pastoral care of Father William
O'Brien, of the Oixler of St. Dominic, whom the prefect-apostolic,
towards the close of the year 1787, sent to replace Mr. Nugent.
Father O'Brien was a highly zealous and intelligent priest, who
knew how to fulfil his duties so as to edify his flock and please
his ecclesiastical superior. Soon after becoming pastor of St.
Peter's he proceeded to Mexico, in order to solicit aid for the
completion of his church, and seems to have been replaced du-
ring his absence by the Rev. Nicholas Rou''ke, whose name ap-
pears in the New xork City Directory from 1790 to 1792.*
The Archbishop of Mexico at this time, Don Alonzo Nunez de
Haro, had been a fellow-student of Father O'Brien's at Bologna,
in Italy, and the prelate received the missionary with the great-
est cordiality. Bishop Bayley found in the proceedings of the
ti'ustees thiit Fath - O'Brien collected in Mexico four thousand
nine hundred iv.\ twenty uoHpi's; and that he brought besides
sevenJ beaul " i paintings, with which he adorned his church,
and a noblo donation of one thousand dollars made him by the

* Now York City Directory for 1791, '2, and 1702, '8.

is,^

856

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

III

Bishop and Chapter of Pucbla do los Angclos, that happy city
which holds the body of the Blessed Sebastian do la Aparicion,
the only beatified servant of God whose body reposes in Nortn
America. This was not the only occasion when the clergy and
Catholics of Mexico have displayed their generosity to their
brethren in the faith in the United States. Some years since,
the lit. Rev. Magloire Blanchet, Bishop of Nesquely, and the Rt.
Rev. Juhn Timon, Bishop of Buftalo, snccessfully appealed to
Mexican charity for the necessities of their dioceses, as did also
the Jesuit Fathers, De Luynes and Maldonado, in behalf of the
college of their Order in the city of New York. These are facts
which should remain in the memory of the faithful, and inspire
lasting gratitude for their fellow Catholics of Mexico.

Father O'Brien displayed all the qualities of a good pastor,
whether in preaching the word of God to the faithful, or in visit-
ing the sick during the ravages of the yellow fever, which tor a
time yearly desolated New York. The scourge was most severe
in the summers of 1795 and 1798, and the good Father multi-
plied himself so as to leave none of his dear parishioners without
religious succor.* Among them he found a compassionate
being, ever ready to devote himself to the care of the sick, in the
person of a young negro, full of more piety and virtue than Mrs.
Stowe could pour into the hero of her tale. But it was not in
the chill of Protestantism that Peter Toussaint found the source
of his charity. He did not, perhaps, constantly read and as
constantly misunderstand the Bible ; but he nourished his soul
daily with tlie " Imitation of Christ," and put it in practice. He
dki not set himself up as a revolutionist, exciting a war of races;
but he spoke to men of his color, more of their duties than of

* The victims of the fever in 1798 were two thousand and eighty-six, of
whom eighty-six wore interred at St. Peter's. Hardie's account of the ma-
lignant fever; New York, 1799. Tiiis gives, however, an imperfect idea of
the number of deaths among the Catholics, as many were buried in the Pot-
ter's Field.

I^ THE UNITED STATES.

their rio-ht^ nn^i i • ' 357

\ "" -'-r t,r: irrr r ^^ ^•-■" -<' — c

"h^o'o population of New CV ''°" "" ^'^'^ ^-" 4Z

"f; ^i-, hi»so.f!;;:;\:: : 't' V' ^--^-^^ ^ "

^"keoutin the island, the lattl, ,' ^"^'"' ""^ ''™'Mion
"ie^e he left Wm wi.I wllame Ve f ?'"" '° ^«« ^o*.
«« We.t Indies to colIectZT • "^ ''''''^ ""^ ■■'^«™^d to
^^^■■-■■d died on the volL ,? ,°' •"'' '°*"'=- B»t M^

-tress, and he resolved w::;: , t.l" ^""P"' »' " »
i^^ »a.ntenance. He was very 0X0^7 ' *^"''' "' ""^ '»« '»
-d by his intelligence and pZZ h "' ' ''^'"' ="'"^«»-,
■o^ble hairdresser to the best soc eTv ?" ''"'""'= *^ ''-''■
Bemrd, wishing to be no long r del '^ » ' '*■ '*'"^'""<'
subsequently married one of w7 . °" '"''' ''''™'» P'"---
;"er being a rieh planter in s^ Do "i"""' *' ^■-'-. wb^
'k; v,oIin in the orchestras Vf S°' **« '■'"J''<=ecl to play
-dor himself exonerated fr 1 h^ ,7"'' ''"™™'-' "« ""t col
'»-d to place in her han s, „ ' '"'f '" f ^ ""^-s, .d eon-
l>.a sanngs. Besides this, Ca bf T^ "'''"' ''""'^^"='/. «"
■» the,r houses, and the iLcid ntt ' 7", '""' '° ™' th^ ict
-■"erous as they are tou W oToY !"'' •='"'% "re as
P;» pnesyust landed, „,,3,-,f™j»3'';e learned that a
to the typhoid fever. Toossainf 7 ^ f ""' '" " ^-''^t, a prey

tie -man down to the ZrinC '° ""^ W bro^hl
took h,m to his house, and nlT, "'™' ^"^"'"^ » "^We
mother time the yelC fever 1 " "" "^ '-°™'-«l- M
"Sed so violently fc , -^'7; "^ f 'ging Ifew Yort, «„„

*« ends of «/«. 7 "et:;* : *^ ?""- "•"i-S

^-- -t heard that a wcHanT^'b ^ aT";"^'" '^™-

"««" aOandoued in ^ne of

858

THE CATIIOMC CnURCH

tho houses ; lie erosBod the bairior. and took hia place by licf
bedside, lavisliiiig every cure iij jj . oi.

In 1810 Madame Nicola., on l-er dcalli-bed, emancipated her
fiiithful slave, and God blessed Toussaint's charity l)y enabiinj^
him to acquire a modest competence. He devoted tho greater
part of his income to gooa works, and not content with giving
liimself, he was always ready to go round wit>) t^Otuuptio'i lists
for churches, con\ents, orphan asylums, any thing that concerned
religion and charity. When he thus solicited alms for others,
he knocked at tlii' doors of his old customers; and donations of
many Protestant lamilits to works essentially Catholic are due
to the influcn e of Toussaint. Thus he hved doing good till tho
age of eighty-seven, and we are assured that for sixty years he
never failed lo hear Mass every morning. IIa\ing survived his
wife and children, he leit the principal part of his property to a
lady who had been one of his kindest patrons, but whom an un-
fortunate marriage had reduced to the utmost misery. He died
as he had lived, on the 30th of June, 1853, and a rich Protestant
lady who attended his funeral thus describes it in a private letter
to a friend :

" I went to town on Saturday to attend Toussaint's funeral.
High Mass, incense, candles, rich robes, sad and solenm music,
were there. The Church gave all it could gW^' to prince or noble.
The priest, his friend, Mr. Quin, made a most interesting address.
He did not allude to his color, and scar-'ely to his station ; it
seemed as if his virtues as a man and a Christian had absorbed
all other thoughts. A stranger would not have suspected that a
black man, of his humble calling, lay in t}»e m'ist of us. He
said no relative was left to mourn for ! , y»'t many present
would feel that they had lost one who alv.ays h id wise counsel
for the rich, words of encouragement for the poor, and all would
be grateiLii for having known him.

" The aid he had given to the late Bishop Fenwick, of Boston,

IN THE UNITED STATES.

859

Lincral.

Iniusic,
noble.

lldrcss.

^on; it
,ovl)etl
ItliHt a
lie
present
lounsel
Iwovild

ioston,

to Father Powers, of our city, to all the Catholii; institutions,
was dwelt uj>on ut large. How nuicli I have learned of his
charitable deeds which I had never known before 1 Mr. Quin
said: 'There were leit few among the clergy superior to him in
devotion and zeal for the Church and for the glory of God ;
among laynnn, none.'"

Another Protestant lady, ISIrs. II. F. Lee, has written the life
of the venerable negro, to whom she not inaptly applies the ex-
pression of the old English author, Thomas Fuller : " God's
image carved in ebony."* The abolitionists of Boston justly ex-
tol the virtues and intelligence of Toussaint, and his merit must
have been of no ordinary character when his being a Catholic
did not put him on the index of New England Puritauism. For
us, who know that men, all equal before God, may be unequal
on earth, we admire piety wherever it shines forth, in the heart
of the slave as in the soul of a king.

T^'ather William O'Brien, so devoted in the hour of pestilence,
wa^ no less sensible to the importance of giving children a
Ch'istian education, and in 1800 he opened a free-school in St.
Peter's Church, which soon numbered five hundred pupils.
About the san.e time the Rev. Matthew O'Brien arrived from
Ireland, and was attached to the same palish in New York.
The latter enjoyed a high reputation in Ireland as a preacher,
where a volume of his sermons had been pubhshed.f He was
consulted by Mrs. Setou in the long indecision which preceded
her conversion, and he enlightened her by written arguments in
reply to the treatises which Dr. Hobart wrote to retain that vir-
tuous lady in error. We have already related the life of Mother
Seton, the venerable foundress of the Sisters of Charity at Em-

* Memoir of Pierre Toussaint, born a Slave in St. Domingo ; by tlio au-
thor of Three Experiments in Living, etc., etc. ; third edition. Boston,
Crosby & Nichols, 1854.

t Sermons on some of the most important subjects of morality and reli-
gion ; by the Kev. Matthew O'Brien, D. D. Cork, James Haly, 1798.

3C0

THE CATHOLIC CUUllCH

Bit'k

motsbiirg. The Rev. Dr. Multhew O'Brien Imd the consolation
of receiving her uhjiinition ia St. Peter's Church on Ash Wed-
nestiay, March 14, 1805; on the 25th she made her first com-
nuiniun in the same church, and on the 2Gth of May received
confirmation at the liands of Bishop Carroll.*

In 1805 the Abb6 Sibourd was an assistant pastor at St.
Peter's. Tliis ecclesiastic came from Europe about 1798, but
wo do not know in what parish the Bishop of Baltimore placed
him before 1805. He became for a time confessor and director
of Mother Seton, and it was in consequence of his representations
to Bishop Dubourg that the latter earnestly urged the pious
convert to leave New York for Baltimore. When Dr. Dubourg
was consecrated to the See. of New Orleans, he persuaded his
friend to accompany him to his diocese, and in 1820 Mr. Sibourd
was Vicar-general of New Orleans. On the 25th of March, 1824,
ho acted as assistant to Monseigneur Dubourg at the consecra-
tion of Bishop Rosati, which took place in the parish Church of
the Assumption ; and when the former prelate left America in
1826 to fill the episcopal See of Montauban, Mr. Sibourg also
returned to France, and died Canon of Montauban. Among the
letters of the Rev. Simon Brut6, the future Bishop of Vincennes,
is a letter dated in 1811, with the following passage: "Mr. Du-
bourg will go to New Orleans as spiritual administrator, as Mr.
Sibourd absolutely persists in refusing."

It is impossible to follow exactly the changes in the clergy at
New York; yet it is certain that in 1805 a Rev. Dr. CafFrey ex-
ercised the holy ministry at St. Peter's. In 1807 the Rev.
Matthias Kelly and Rev. John Byrne also resided at New York,
and their names figure in a list of subscribers to Pastorini's His-

* The Kev. Wm. O'Brien continued to act in New York till his death on
the 14tli of May, 1816, though not apparently aa pastor. Dr. Matthew
O'Brien, however, left New York in consequence of difficulties which arose,
and died at Baltimore on the 20th of October, 1816.

"'"> "".■ „„.,.,l,u„, „f t,,„.^ "'"!"■' Fo,„v,ct-,v,,„ „,„„

" '««= tu ,„,i„, „.,,„,-^i,. i, f,, ^"'y. l"i, wout W KussiH
'"» t>v„ y„.„. „„„.,. '» "«. Socoty of Jeaus, „„d „fe,

f;"™l. <;.b,.i,.| c;r„l,er Tl,; ' 'r f """™ ""^ "■" ^-P^-'or-

--..ate opened „t «;„,,.,,;, ° ' « ««' Jo enter tl.e Jesuit
P.'.ertl,oocl i„ ,1,0 follow,-,,; yj "''«»»•, ">.J «"» ,.ai,ed ,„ the
"vo Fathers ,,o,,ed «,„„ ToCldl" "T""^ "' ^"* ^"'k the
P-enee of , ,„, „„„ £ ™«; ""^ co,„fo,,ed ky the

"«8, Pope I,-,,, VII. ,„d ,,Xd ToV!' '"' '""^ °'^Kii 8,
Bal .mo,-e i„t„ , metropolit,,, 1 " "'"'i"'''' 1-^ «»eW

l''..ladelpl,ia, Now Vork Ko ', 1,"" "'•<""'"? "^^ Sees i

F."l-.- Luke CoucTl T; ""'' ^'''''^'""'

«»<! received episcopal o soor ? ' '"'''°' "' ^"* ^-^

at. «.e hands of Ca,'di„,r: t:,S T f" ''* "'^P"'. "ot
B.*op Conoanen was boru h, m' f™' "' "'" P'-Paganda
*- sent to ,.e„ei.e the white lb r ^'" "' " "^""^ «e«>

" «.« Holy Qoss, belonJi,, t ' ^-™.-"e, in the oonvent
*'..eh, at the expi,,,tion oVhis o i, ,1' ''™'""-"'. f-"
St. Mary's, i„ the Minerva ol , ' '" *"* '«»">™<i to
■" Borne. Atthete,-,„inat;„ ofr"^ ""'^ """e Minerva^
%.oal studies, d„,.ing wld^ L' '^ ™"^«^" -"- of thee

* At the epoch^TT^ ^ -_____' *'^^ college of

tbr«« n„^.. T°°'' ^f the so-called V.^ZTZ ~~ °^ '

1 6 ^ '' ^''^ •'^e^ bounded duriag

362

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

I'-! i

the Irish Dominicans in the same capital, and then commenced
that brilliant career in Rome which ended in his nomination
by the Holy See, first, to the See of Kilmacduagh in Ireland,
and afterwards to that of New York, then erected for the first
time into a diocese. The reasons which may have influenced the
Holy See in making choice of Dr. Concanen for promotion to
such a high office in the Church may be easily explained. For
several years previously he had filled the office of liieologus
Casanatensis, a chair founded at the Minerva in connection with
the celebrated library there instituted and endowed by the mu-
nificence of the illustrious Cardinal Casanate. It may be men-
tioned that according to the terms of this foundation there were
usually six cathedratici and theologi, one being selected fi'om
each of the great provinces of the Order of Preachers in Europe ;
viz., France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Great Britain and Ireland,
and the Low Countries, or Poland. The Cardinal was devotedly
attached to the doctrines of St. Thomas Aquinas, and among
the qualifications, therefore, for the office which he thus insti
tuted, a Mastership — that is to say, a Doctorship, acquired by
teaching the course of St. Thomas — was indispensably necessary.
Some of the ablest men that Rome has seen, continued to repre-
sent their respective countries and languages in the office alluded
to up to the period of the first French Revolution, and not the
least among them was the representative of the Hibernian Do-
minicans, Dr. Luke Concanen. While residing at the Minerva
in the capacity just mentioned. Dr. Concanen became agent to
the late Dr. Troy, Archbishop of Dublin, and subsequently to

the thirteenth century. St. Clement's, togfether with St. Sixtus'a, was made
over by a general chapter of the Order shortly after the suppression of con-
vents in Ireland to the Hibernia Dominicana, for the purpose of educating
missionaries for this country. A similar one was founded in Lisbon, and
another in Lorraine (now no longer in existence), and these were the means
of preservation of the Dominican Order in Ireland during the days of 'lerso-
cution.

ced
,ion
ind,
first

the
n to

For

OffUS

with
mu-
men-
were
from
trope ",
eland,
ptedly
mong
insti
^ed by
ssary.
repre-
ludcd
ot the
Do-
linerva
ent to
tly to

made
)f con-
icatlug
i>n, and

meuna
' »:ierBo-

IN THE UNITED STATES.

363

all the bishops of Ireland. It might be said that such was the
high esteem in which he was held at the Propaganda while
thus engaged, that he either altogether influenced or certainly
had a part in advising every appointment that was made for
Ireland and the British colonies.

It may be worth recording that Dr. Concanen was well known
in Rome also as a preacher in the Italian language — a rare thing
for a foreigner to succeed in, or even attempt. Between his du-
ties at the Minerva in his double capacity of Theologus Casana-
tensis and Socius (or Secretary) for his own province of Ireland
to the head of the Order, and the agencies he had to discharge at
the Sacred Congregations, he was brought into immediate and
constant contact with the principal authorities at Rome, and it is
therefore not surprising that he should have been solicited on
various occasions to accept such a mark of favor as a mitre- His
motive for declining the hon()r was that his health began to suf-
fer from the effects of an attack of dysentery, and he dreaded
coming to encounter the damp climate of Ireland. In 1810 he
accepted that of New York in preference to the one oflfcred him
in his native land, on account of the southern latitude of the
former and the favorable account he had received of its climate.
Probably the disturbed state of Italy, then overrun with invading
and hostile armies, had its weight in inducing him to leave the
city in which his heart was centred, and where he had resided for
nearly forty years.

He had long taken an intt3rest in the American missions, and
it was chiefly by his advice that the flrst convent of Dominicans
had been founded in Kentucky in 1805, and he constantly, as
long as he lived, showed himself a generous benefactor of that
house. When nomin;\ted to the See of New York he accepted,
believing that his health would there enable him to discharge the
onerous duties which the episcopacy in a newly-erected See

364

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

would impose upon liim.* He sot about, liis preparations, in-
tending, as soon as he took possession of the new diocese, to call
in missionaries of his Order. Unfortunately, death struck him
down before he could leave Italy, and this premature death,
which for eight years deprived New York of a bishop, defeated
entirely the project of a foundation of the Dominicans.

Soon after his consecration Bishop Concauen proceeded to
Leghorn, in order to proceed to his See ; but, as he wrote to
x\rchbishop Troy, " after remaining four months in Leghorn and
its environs, at a hotel, and expending a very considerable sum
of money, I was under the necessity of returning to this city
(Rome). You will do me a singular favor in procuring me some
information from Dr. Carroll. I wish to know what assignment
or provision there is for the support of the new bishop. You
will oblige me by any information on this head before my depart-
ure from hence, which will be God knows when."f

As Father Kohlmann remarks in one of his letters, the bishop,
had he known the utter absence of any provision, would not, in
his feeble health, have attempted to take possession of the See ;
but of this he was unaware, and believing the task not beyond
his strength, tried all means in his power to repair to his beloved
flock; but the unhappy circumstances of wars ar.l revolutions
always prevented him from attaining the end of his most ardent
desires, till at length he had reason to believe, after a series of
disappointments and expenses, that the long-wished-for period
had arrived which would enable him to obtain a passage to
Amciica. Naples was tie port from which he contemplated
sailing, whither he repaired in order to avail himself of the op-
portunity of a vessel there bound for the United States. He
had already secured his passage, when the government of Naples,

* Letter of Father Eobcrt A. White, 0. S. D., of Dublin, the nephew of
Bishop Concanen, who has kindly furnished the information,
t Letter of Father Kohluiann, comuiunicatod by Father Q. Fenwick, S. J.

•^

in-

IN THE VNITED STATES.

^We to consocrato tlfo rc,"ldrof ,' f "''"' '"'" '=™'- ^™'8
floct, that Lo fell dang! Ilv'll „ T ''^" '° "'^ ^''^"'-^ "f Ms
without s„.piei„, of pfL„ e'l "Vr " '"'' ""^'^ "f'=-' -'
";g life in the g^at convl f Tt ''.'^^''™P'»■■y «-d od;,>
P>-, on the »th of June Z8 0 TtT'r- '" "" "'^ "^ ^^^'-
day, were celebrated the fmeral'ol ' ' ™ "'" '"""'""g

ishop of New Yort, .hot dTsle tfT'" "' "■' ''^^' ^^''^°'''
h™, at the age of „ea,ly sevear to i'^f ""'"' '■"• '"""^'=d
"g to this country, after havW ^,, ' '■'''°'""°» "^ «=»»-
".0 Court of Eo,uo,';he h I^Jd t ""'■'' '"'''^ '"" "'

l"s nch library and a legacy of . f °"'' '" !"""%,

these were also lost to the tee ^5 v^T '"' "<"'- ' -^
Pontiff learned with deep .rief h , ! "*• ^'''^ "^"'""ig"
Wed with the title of^S tuty '1°' =" r'"" ''"™' ^«
of Napoleon, and in this situation ,, "'™ '''<' l™o°<"-

»0'nmation. The See of tCZt ""' '"'°"^"'' '« » "■"-

cant, before ever havin. bee, oc 7 T ^"^ ■''' ''"""'"^•^ ^■"-

ci::nr-'^-'^.''-^e:::!::-^^

state of Catholicity in Ne^y Ycl' nf fi

366

TH£ CATUOLIC CHURCH

was thus deprived of its pastor, we find an account in the letter
of Father Kohhnann of the 2 1st of Mai'ch, 1 800. " Three months
ago," he writes, " Archbishop Carroll, with the agreement of our
worthy Supeiiors, sent me to New Yoi'k to attend the congrega-
tion, together with the diocese, till the arrival of our Eight Rev.
Bishop, Richard Luke Concanen, lately consecrated at Rome.
This parish comprises about sixteen thousand Catholics, so neg-
lected iu every respect, that it goes beyond all conception." This
Father, v itii his zealous coadjutor, immediately began to improve
St. Peter's, and excite the piety of the fjiithful. Their efforts
were not unrewarded. Ere long, he wrote, consolingly : " The
communion-rail daily filled, though deserted before ; general con-
fessions every day (for the majority of this immense parish are
natives of Ireland, many Ox" whom have never seen the face of a
priest since their arrival in the country) ; three sermons, in
English, French, and German, every Sunday, instead of the sin-
gle one in English ; three Catechism classes every Sunday, in-
stead of one ; Protestants every day instructed and received into
the Church ; sick persons attended with cheerfulness at the first
call, and ordinarily oUch as stand in great need of instruction
and general confessions ; application made at all houses to raise a
subscription for the relief of the poor, by which means three
thousand dollars have been collected, to be paid constantly every
year."

The increased number of the faithful in New York called loud-
ly for the erection of a new church, and Father Kohlmann did
not shrink from uudertakmg it. A large plot of ground was
pui'chased in what was then the unoccupied space between
Broadway and the Bowery road, and here " the corner-stone was
laid by the Rev. Mr. Kohlmann, Rector of St. Peter's Church,
and Vicar-general of the diocese, amidst a large and respectable
assemblage of citizens, exceeding three thousand," on Thursday,
Jie 8th of June, 1809 ; and, in conformity with the suggestion

^F■^

•»

IN THE UNITED STATES.

367

i^rJ

tat

of the venerablo Archbisliop Carroll, the new church was called
St. Patrick's.

Father Kohlinann hoped to conclude the church before* the
end of the year, but owing to various delays, the Cathedral of
St. Patrick was not consecrated till Ascension-day, 1816, when
the illustrious Dr. Cheverus, P)ishop of Boston, performed that
ceremony, the mayor and aldermen of the city taking part in
the procession, with the trustees of St. Peter's, who directed the
temporal affairs of the new church till 1817, when the Legisla-
ture, by a special act;, created a new board of trustees for the
Cathedral.f

Although the functions of the parochial ministry must have
filled up the days of Father Kohlmaun and Father Fenwick, the
two Jesuits did not lose sight of one great object of their com-
ing— the education of youth. They had brought with them four
young scholastics of their order, Michael White, James Red-
nioud, A.dam Marshall, and James Wallace; and early in 1809
opened a school, the basis of a future college. Lots in front of
the Cathedral were purchased as a site, and in July, Father
Kohlmann wrote : " As to our school, it now consists of about
thirty -five of the most respectable children of the city, both
Catholics and of other persuasions, among whom four are board-
ing at our house, and in all probability we shall have seven or
eiffht boarders next Auijust." This school was transferred to
Broadway in September, but in the following year removed to
what was then the countrv, the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fif-
teenth-street. This rising college now assumed the name of The
New York Literary Institution, and was the instrument of im-
mense good. A biographer of Bishop Fenwick, speaking of its
usefulness, remarks: "The New York Literary Institution, under

* U. S. Catholic Almanac, 1850, p. 59.

t The acts bear diite April 11 and April 14, 1817. The Koman CathoUo
Benevolent Association wiui hicorporated about the same time. •

308

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

his guidance, readied an eminence scarcely surpassed by any at
the present day. Such was its reputation, even among Prot-
estants, that Governor Tompkins, afterwards Vice-president of the
United States, thought none moi'e eligible for the education of
his own children, and ever afterwards professed towards its presi-
dent the highest esteem."

The teachers were talented men, and Mr. Wallace, who was
an excellent mathematician, compiled a very full treatise on
Astronoinv and the Use of the Globes,* one of the first contri-
butions of the Society of Jesus in America to exact science, a
field in winch Fathers Curley, Sestini, and others, have since so
sno'^ssfully labored. Besides those already named. Father Peter
Mh , and Mr. Joseph Gobert, lay teacher, aided in the work of
iustructi';'

It soon became, however, painfully evident to Fathers Kohlmann
and Fenwick, that in the actual position of the society, it was im-
possible for them to carry on the college. At this time, it will be
remembered, the illustrious Pontiff, Pius VII., had not restored
to the Christian woild the Society of Jesus ; it existed in Russia,
Sicily, and America, but the distance between these countries
prevented its development, and even ready intercourse.

As soon as the fact became known, Archbishop Carroll and
his holy coadjutor were deeply grieved, though both felt the pro-
pnety of the step. The college actually cont-^Jhed seventy-four
boarders in 1813, and the prelates sought, if possible, to maintain
it, if the Jesuits withdrew. Father John Grassi, then Superior of
the American Jesuits, in a letter to Father Kohlmann, exposes

* A New Treatise on tlie Use of the Globes and Practical Astronomy, by
J. Wallace, member of the New York I,iterary Institution. Now York:
Smith & Formaii, 1812, 512 pp. James Wallace, born in Ireland, about 1788,
died on the 15th of January, 1851, at the age of sixty-eiglil, in Lexinfirtun.
District, South Carolina. Ho was for many years Protessor of Matlieniatics
in the college ut Columbia, S. C, occasionally, however, exercising the min-
iBtry.

"H^

IN THE UNITED STATES.

369

if*

the interest felt concerning tliis institution of loaining : "The
Kev. Mr. Marcclial, a Sulpitian, paid a sliort visit to this college
(Georgetown). It is coniidently asserted that he is to be Bishop
of New York, and the great concern he showed for the Literary
Institution confirms me in this idea. I exposed to him onr situa-
tion, the want of members, and lie was sensible that such an in-
ptitution is onus insiq^portahiU for ns, in our present- circum-
stances, and for several years to come. I consulted again, quite
lately, the Most Rev. Archbishop Carroll on this verv subject ;
and he answered, that as the want of proper persons to carry it
on is evident, this ought to be reprcKsented to those who are con-
cerned in it."

The Fathers could not foresee the speedy restoration of their
Society, nor its subsequent wonderful progress. In the summer
of 1813, they retired from the direction of the college, in which
they had endeared themselves to their pupils and won the admi-
ration of the best families in the city, Protestant as Avell as
Catholic.

Another religious order was at this moment in the city of New
York, and to their care the Fathers of 8t. Ignatius resigned the
care of the college which they had created. This orde?' was the
monks of La Trappe, of whom we shall speak hereafter. Mean-
Avhile, we return to the apostolic labors of the Fathers of the
Society of Jesus.

The two eminent Jesuits, Father Benedict Fenwick and Father
Anthony Kohlmann, were only a few months at New York, when
they were called to the death-bed of one of the greatest enemies
of the Church of Jesus Christ, the infidel who played in America
the part of Voltaire in France, .md who had the odious glory of
creating in the New World a school of anti-Christian pliiloso])hy.
The visit of the two priests inspired the dying man with no salu-
tary reflections. He was already abandoned by God, and given
up to despair ; but the details oi this intervi w, nevertheless, de-

370

THE CATIIOMC ciirKcri

jii

^ii!

serve to be known, to sliow to wluit un iuvful stale of degmdation
impiety falls, when in the presence of death.

Thomas I'aiue, born in Norfolkshire, Enghmd, on llie '29tii of
January, 1737, was successively a staymaker, a polilical writer
in America, an envoy from Congress to Lonis XVI., and finally,
representative of Calais at the National Convention. This cos-
mopolitan philosopher, who did not even speak French, neverthe-
less sat as judge on the king, wliose favoi' he liad gone to seek
eleven years before. Keturning to private life, Taine wrote in
PVance his infamous work, " The Age of Reason," in which he
<VLtacks revelation, and preaclifs up natural religion. His disso-
lute life having discredited him at Paris, he returned to the
United States, at the commencement of the present century.
Hero he published works hostile to religion, and died, consumed
by his debaucheries, at Greenwich Village, near New York, on
the 8th of June, 1809.

A fortniglit before his death, the philosopher, seeing himself
abandoned by his physicians, was plunged into a gloomy despair.
Amid the silence of the night, he was heard crying, " Lord !
help me ! My God, what have I done to sutler so ? But there
is no God. Yet, if there is a God, what will become of me 2"
lie could not bear to be left alone, and begged to hare at least
a child near the bed, in which he wallowed in abject filth.
Seeking new remedies in every direction, Paine saw a Shaking
Quakeress, wdiom P'ather Fcnwick had baptized some weeks be-
fore ; and she told him that no one but a Catholic priest could
do him any good. The wretched freethinker, who cared only
for his body, immediately believed that a priest might pi'olong
for a few days his wretched existence ; and he immediately sent
for Father Fenwick. The latter, who was then only twenty-six
years of age, dreaded his own inexperience, and begged his col-
league. Father Kohlmann, to accompany him, and the two Jes-
uits proceeded to the house oi the infidel. But as soon as Paijie

IN THE UNITED STATES.

371

Baw his error — as soon .v; he heard his pious visitoi's epcak to
him of his soul instead oi prescribing a remedy for his physical
evils, he imperiously silenced them, refused to listen, and ordered
them out of the room. " Paine was rou.sed into a fury," wrote
Father Fenwick, giving an account of this interview : "he grit-
ted his teeth, twisted aud turned himseil Sicvd a times in his bed,
uttering all the while the bitterest imprecations. I firmly be-
lieve, such was the rage in which he v,;'s at this time, that if he
had had a pist<' he would have shot one of us ; for he conduct-
ed himself , lore like a madman than a ra .onal creature. ' Be-
gone,' says iie, ' and trouble me no more. I was in peace,' he
continued, ' till you came. Away with you, and your God, too ;
leave the room instantly : all that you have uttered are lies —
filthy lies ; aud if I had a little more time I would prove it, as I
did about your impostor, Jesus Christ.' 'Leo us go,' said I then,
to Father Kohlmann : ' we have nothing nxore to do here. He
seems to be entirely abandoned by Go'l !' "*

Thomas Paine soon expired, in the anguish of despair, having
repulsed the ministers of Protestantism as o' -fi lately as he drove
away the Catholic priests. For him, as foi /^oltaire, death was
the most fearful of trials; and the recollect'on of their blasphe-
mies haunted both in their last moments, and made them en-
dure by anticipation the tortures of another life. They knew
only remorse, for their pride closed the way to repentance. In
both cases, priests came with unequalled ciiarity to save these
souls from the flames of hell ; for priestly •' jvotedness braves
the outrages of the crying infidel, as it does the miasma of con-
tagion at the bed of the plague-stricken. Tn France, Voltaire
has lost the glitter of his popularity ; but in x.merica, the wide-

* Death-bed of Tom Paine. Extract from a letter of Bishop Fenwick to
his brother in Georgetown College. U. S. Catholic Magazine, v. 558. The
Biographie Universelle mentioas briefly hia interview with two Catholio
priests.

% (Rf

^ t

372

THK CATU TC CHURCn

( I

i 1

spread soct of iiifuk-ls iHure .a\d more honor tli« memory of
Paine, iih the greatest benefaetor of liumanity. Tho anniveisary
of his birth is celebratofi by tlio partisans of his impiety. They
assemble at gorgeous banquets and festivities : 1 idies, child i"n,
whole families, take part in these glorifications of atheism. They
drink to the extinction of all religions, to the overthrow of all
priesthood, and, blaspheming the name of God, dance on tho
very threshold of eternity.

Some years later, Father Kohlmann had occasion to render an
important service to religion by firmly resisting the orders of a
tribunal, which called upon him to i-eveal the secrets of the con-
fessional. This afl^iir, whicli produced a great sensation in tho
United States, suddenly arose, from a combination of very (com-
monplace circumstances. A Catholic merchant, Mr. .James Keat-
ing, entered a complaint, in tho month of March, 1813, agair.st
a man named Phillips, and his wife, for recei"ing stolen goods,
which belonged to him. I'Soon after, two negroes, Bradley and
Brinkerhoff, were suspec* "u of being the thieves ; but before
the trial came on, Mr. Kciting recovered his property, and asked
to have the case dismissed. This was out of the question ; and
on being asked his reasons, Keating stated that restitution had
been made to him through the Rev. Mr. Kohlmann, who was
immediately cited as a witness, to prove from wliom he had re-
ceived the stolen property. Father Kohlmann appeared, but
declined to answer, denying the riglit of the court to question a
priest as to facts which are unknown to him except through tho
confessional. He availed himself of the circumstance to set
forth at length the doctrine of the Church on tho sacrament of
penance ; and his discourse, heard with attention by a vast thi'ong,
was spread and commented on by the press, provoking passion-
ate discussions on the part of several Protestant ministers. The
question of the admissibility of the evidence, and of the right of
exemption claimed by Father Kohlmann, were now a more im-

^■u

■T' TM"

IN THE UNITED STATES.

373

portaut matter lliau tho convif'tion of two ncij^roes. A tlfty whh
;ippoiiite(l for the argumcut of the point whctlier Father Kohl-
iiiaim should be committed for contempt of court iu refusing to

■lehberation of the
,. n law, prolonged

1 4th of June, 1813,

\v, and President

u the decision of tho

answer. The pleading of the counsc'

judges, the thousand technicalities of A;

the atlair for two months; and at last,

the Honorable De Witt Clinton, Mayoi of

of the Court of General Sessions, pronoun

Court. After some reflections remarkable for the wisdom of their

views and a spirit of liberality iu favor of the Catholic religion,

this distinguished man concluded that a priest could not be called

upon to testify as to facts known to him only by virtue of his

ministry; and his opinion concludes with tliese words:

" We speak of this question not in a theological sense, but in
its legal and constitutional bearings. Although we diifer from
the witness and his brethren in our religious creed, yet we have
no reason to question the purity of their motives, or to impeach
their good conduct as citizens. They are protected by the laws
and constitution of this country, in the full and free exercise of
their religion ; and this court can never countenance or author-
ize tho application of insult to their faith, or of torture to their
consciences."*

The principle maintained by Father Kohlmann was thus adopt-
ed by the tribunal; but it might, like any other solution of jui'is-
prudence, be again called in question. However, in 1828, when
De Witt Clinton was governor of the State, the Legislature of
New York, in its Revised Statutes, adopted a clause which pre-
vented any renewal of the attempt, by deciding that " no min-
ister of the Gospel, or priest of any denomination wliatsoever,
shall be allowed to disclose any confessions made to him in his

* Tlie Catholic Question in America. : — Whether a Roman Catholic Clergy-
man bo, in any case, compelled to disclose the Secrets of Auricular Confes-
eion. New York : Edward Gillespie, 1818, p. IU.

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374

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

professional character, iu the course of discipline enjoined by the
lulos or practice of such denomination."* Yet this law has no
force beyond the limits of the State of New York ; and a simi-
lar discussion, which, as we have seen, took place in Virginia in
1855, proves that other States need to imitate New York, and
fill up this omission in their code.

Father Kohlmann published the whole proceeding, followed
by a very full exposition of the doctrine of the Church on the
sacrament of penance ; and this book excited several refutations
from the Protestant clergy. The most elaborate was that from
the pen of the Rev. Charles H. Wharton,f who, after having been

* E. S., Pt. iii., Oh. vii., Art. 8, Sec. 72.

It is an error iti Oretineau Joly to represent this as a question of life or
death for Catholicity. No : Catholicity would not be dead in America if the
court had ordered the Jesuit to reveal the secret of the confessional. As
Father Kohlmann would have refused, he would have been condemned to
imprisonment for his contempt during the term of the court, and no longer.
The law of 1828 has not been imitated in other States which have no law to
protect the conscience of the clergyman ; yet the recent affair at Kichmoud
is almost the only example, since Father Kohlmann's, in which n court has
eouglit to intrude between the priest and iiis penitent. The case in ldl3 is
important chiefly from the fact that it drew the attention of Protestants to
tlie doctrines of the Church, and gave a wide circulation to Father Kohl-
mann's eloquent exposition.

+ Charles II. Wharton, born in Maryland in 1748, was ordained in England
in 1760. He was pastor at Worcester when, in 1783, he left his parish and
ciune back to America. The next year he published " A Letter to the Romiin
Catholics of Worcester," to announce that he had gone over to Protestantism,
ajul justifying the step. The Rev. John Carroll replied, in " An Address
to the Roman Catholics of the United States of America, by a Catholic Ger-
gviiuin," Annapolis, 1784; and this noble refutation confirmed the minds of
Catholics, disquieted and mortified at Wharton's apostasy. That gentleman
became Episcopal minister at Burlington, New Jersey, where he resided till
liis death in 1883, at the age of eighty-six. He was twice married, and died
before the arrival of a priest for whom he had sent. Strange to say, the
man who so combated confession, heard a confession and gave absolution in
1832. His Catholic servant-girl, dangerously sick, was begging for a priest;
none could be found; and Mr. Wharton told her, "Although I am a minis-
ter, I am also a Catholic priest, and can give absolution in your case ;" which
he accordingly did. His controversy with Carroll is published under the
title. •' A Concise View of the Principal Points of Controversy between the

^ ):■:■:

IN THE UNITED STATES.

375

a priest for twenty-four years, fell, unhappily, into apostasy.
This man, now quite aged, seeing the effect produced by " The
Catholic Question," seized his envenomed pen to defame anew
the faith of his ancestors. His pamphlet drew a learned reply
from the Rev. S. F. O'GpJlagher,* a Catholic priest of Charleston,
to which Wharton retorted in a second pamphlet. The length
and duration of this controversy show how widely had been
spread the defence of Father Kohlmann ; and the learned Jesuit
followed up this work by a more extended publication, in refuta-
tion of the errors of the modern Arians, known in the United
States as Unitarians.

In the widowed state in which the Church of New York lan-
guished, deprived of a bishop. Fathers Fenwick and Kohlmann
neglected nothing to prevent the Church from sufferiag from the
vacancy of the See ; and as they had sought to provide for the
education of young men, so, too, they actively endeavored to
meet the wants of the other sex. "We read in a letter of the
Rev. Mr. Brute to Bishop Flaget, on the 15 th of April, 1812 :
" Two Irish priests have just arrived at New York ; one of them
of great merit, the archbishop says. With these two gentlemen
came three Ursulines for Mr. Kohlmann, who wished to found a

Protestant and Roman Churches, by the Rev. C. H. Wharton, D. D. New
York, 1817."

* " A Brief Reply to a Short Answer to a True Exposition of the Doctrine
of the Catholic Church touching the Sacrament of Penance, by S. F. O' Gal-
lagher. New York, 1815."

In 1798, the Rev. Dr. O'Gallagher, a native of Dublin, was sent to
Charleston by Bishop Carroll, and Bishop England calls him a man of ex-
traordinary eloquence, of a superior intellect, and finely cultivated mind.
** While zealously exercising the duties of the ministry, he was obliged to
teach for his support. In the Life of the celebrated Attorney-general, Hugh
Swinton Legare, it is related that no competent Latin teacher could be
found for this descendant of the Huguenots but Dr. O'Gallagher. This
missionary was sent to Savannah in 1817, and so\ne years after went to
Louisiana." Bishop England's Works, iii. 251. Wiitings of Hugh Swinton
Legare, i. xii.

376

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

J
"I

convent with them." These three religious, i*med Christina
Fagan (Sister Mary Ann), Superior, Sarah Walsh (Sister Frances
de Chantal), and Mary Baldwin (Sister Mary Paul), are the first
who have resided in the diocese of New York. They came from
the celebrated Blackrock convent at Cork, in Ireland, and were
obtained by Father Kohlmann through Father Betagh, of Lon-
don ; and notwithstanding the short duration of their establish-
ment, which did not exceed three years, they deserve that we
should give a brief account of their too little known Institute.

From the destruction of the monasteries by Henry VIII. till
the middle of the eighteenth century, Ireland possessed, so to
say, no religious community of women ; and, as is known, all
Catholic teaching was forbidden, under the severest penalties.
About 1*760, a holy young woman, Miss Nano Nagle,* toucned
at the wants of the people, resolved to devote herself to the edu
cation of poor children, and secretly opened schools, first at Dub-
lin, and afterwards at Cork. Some companions joined her in
this good work ; but, to give it permanence, it was necessary to
bind them by the vows of religion, and following the advice of
the Rev. Dr. Moylan,f afterwards Bishop of Cork, four of them
set out for Paris, to make their novitiate with the Ursulines at
St. Jacques. They began it on the 5th of September, 1*769, and
on the 18th of September, 17*71, took possession of the house

* Miss Nano Nagle, born at Ballygriffln, on the banks of the Black-
wator, in 1728, belonged to a distinguished Irish family. She died April
26, 1784.

+ Colonel Moylan, aid-de-camp to Washington during the Eevolutionary
War, was brother of this bishop. Washington attached him, for a time, to
the person of the Marquis de Chastellux, mujor-goneral in Rochambeau's
army ; and the marquis says, in his memoirs, " Colonel Moylan is a Catholic.
One of his brothers is Bishop of Cork, another a merchant at Cadiz, a third
a merchant at L'Orient, a fourth at home, and a fifth studying for the priest-
hood." The Bishop of Cork had also a sister, Miss Louisa Moylan, who
was the first to join the Ursulines on their arrival at Cork in 1771, where she
died in 1842, ab the age of ninety.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

377

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which had been prepared for their reception at Cork. It was
not, however, till 1779 that they ventured to assume the habit
of their order, so great was the dread of the penal laws under
which Ireland then groaned.

Miss Nagle had not accompanied her companions to France,
but had continued to direct her schools in Ireland, and on the
return of the young Ursulines to Cork, joined the community of
Avhich she is regarded as the foundress. She soon, however, per-
ceived that her vocation called her to devote herself exclusively
to poor children, while the Institute of the Ursulines undertakes
principally the education of the more wealthy classes. Miss
Nagle accordingly left the Ursulines, and recvuited new auxilia-
ries, who became, with her, the root of the Presentation order.
It was only after her death, and in September, 1791, that Pope
Pius VI. approved the object of the Institute, and recognized its
existence. That of the Ursulines had been approved by Pope
Clement XIV., on the 13th of January, 1773 ; so that the same
lady has the glory of having founded two communities which
now cover Ireland with convents, and which have more than
twenty thousand girls in their academies and schools.*

The Ursulines of New York were incorporated by an act of
the Legislature, on the 26th of March, 1814, and even prior to
that, they had opened an academy and poor-school. But they
had come to America on the express condition, that if in three
years they did not receive a certain number of novices, they
should return to Ireland. The Catholics were poor, vocations
few, and among the young women who would have entered,
none could furnish the dowry required by the Ursulines. They

* The Life of Miss Nano Nagle, Foundress of the Presentation order, by
the late Riglit Kev. Dr. Coppinger, Bishop of Cloyne and Ross : Dublin,
1843. Dublin Review for 1844, p. 863-386. There were in Ireland, in 1844,
four Ursuline convents, and thirty of the Order of the Presentation ; and
the number baa greatly increased there and in the colonies siuec.

378

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

accordingly; left New York .it the expinition of the term fixed
upon, and it was not till 1855 that religious of the same order,
coming from St. Louis, restored to the diocese of New York the
daughters of St. Angela. The convent of 1812 was situated
near the Third Avenue, about 50th-street, and was afterwards
occupied by the Rev. Mr. Iluddard, a Protestant clergyman, as a
boarding-school.*

The Ursulines had for some time as chaplains the Trappist
leathers, of whom we have spoken ; but the stay of these sons
of St. Bernard was only temporary. The storm of persecution
drove them to the New World; and when the tempest had
spent its fury, they returned to the European monasteries from
■which they had boen driven. In 1*791, the French Government
having seized the property of the monks of La Trappe,f twenty-
four of the religious, guided by Dom Augustine, sought a refuge
at Val Sainte, in the canton of Fribourg, where they were nobly
welcomed by the cantonal authorities. They arrived there on
the 1st of June, 1791, and under the able administration of Dom
Augustiu'^, they had gathered their brethren, dispersed by the
Keign of Terror, and sent colonies in various directions, when
the invasion of Switzerland by a French army compelled the
Trappists to abandon in all haste their holy asylum, in the
month of February, 1798. They wandered in various parts of
Bavaria and Austria, without finding a spot to rest their weary

■i

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* The Ursulino order was founded in 1537, at Brescia, diocese of Verona,
by Angela Merici, born in 1511, at Dezenzano, on tlie Lago de Garda. She
died in 1540, and was canonized in 1807. She put her spiritual daughters
under the protection of St. Ursula, who had, about 450, governed so many
virgins, and led them to martyrdom.

■•• The Abbey of Our Lady of La Trappe is situated in the department of
Orne, near Mortaqne. Founded in the year 1140, and occupied by monks of
the Order of Citeaux, it was reformed, in 1662, by the Abbe de Banco. The
name of La Trappe has since been given to all the monasteries which have
adopted the reform of Abbe de Eance. In 1791 there were at La Trappe
fifty-five choir monks and thirty-seven lay-brothers.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

379

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heads, till at last the Empero" Paul I. promised thorn hospitality
in his States, and the courageous monks arrived in Russia iu
August, 1799. But their quiet was not to be of long duration.
The following year, the Czar issued a ukase, ordering all French
emigrants to leave his States, and the Trappists resumed their
route on the 13th of April, 1800. Austria closed its frontiers to
Dom Augustine and his companions ; they had humbly to ask
a refuge from Protestant Prussia, which temporarily granted tho
favor so brutally refused by Catholic Austria. Then it was that
the Trappists resolved to seek an asylum in America; and a
party of them, under the guidance of Father Urban Guillet, em-
barked at Amsterdam for Baltimore on the 29th of May, 1803.
They arrived on the 4th of September, and after a brief sojourn
at Pigeon Hill, in Pennsylvania, set out for Kentucky in the
inonti\ of July, 1805. The story of their labors in that State
and in the neighborhood of St. Louis will find its place, in due
time, in another part of this history.

Meanwhile, the horizon cleared for a moment on the Trappists
in Europe. The deliverance of Switzerland, in 1804, soon per-
mitted the monks to return to Val Sainte, and in 1805 Napo-
leon granted them authority to establish themselves in his em-
pire. Mount Valerian, which rises at the gates of Paris, soon
beheld a monastery of this austere order arise, and the disper-
sion caused by the Reign of Terror seemed repaired ; but when
the emperor began to persecute and imprison the Pope, he could
not find accomplices in the fervent disciples of the Abbe de
Ranee.

In 1810, Dom Aiigustine having made his monks solemnly
retract the oath of fidelity taken to the constitution of the em-
pire, Napoleon, provoked at the step, ordered all the houses of
ija Trappe to be closed, and the courageous abbot to be tried by
court-martial. Dom Augustine would have been shot, but he
succeeded in escaping to Switzerland ; and thence, traversing Ger*

380

THE CATHOLIC CHUIICII

many, pursued by the imperial police, embarked at Riga for
England, and then at London for the United States. There ho
found a second colony of Trappists awaiting him. Father Vin-
cent of Paul, Superior of the house at Bordeaux, had left France
with two monks and one Trappist nun, on the closing of the con-
vents in 1810, and arrived at Boston on the 6th of August, 1811.

Bishop Cheverus received them with his usual goodness —
lodged them in his house, and offered them a generous hospi-
tality as long as they stayed at Boston. Father Vincent trav-
elled to several parts to find a suitable abode, and choose among
the lands offered to him. Pennsylvania presented nothing to
suit him, and at last, with others of the brethren from Europe,
he installed himself at Port Tobacco, in Maryland, on a tract
selected by the Archbishop and the Sulpitians of Baltimore.
The Trappists immediately began their agricultural labors, which
were interrupted by disease ; and these trials obliged them to
retire to Baltimore, where the venerable Abbe Moranvill6, pas-
tor of St. Patricks, showed them the most generous hospitality.

Towards the close of 1813, Dom Augustine arrived at New
York, and resolved to take up his residence in the neighborhood
of that city. He accordingly ordered Father Urban to leave
Missouri, and join him at New York. Father Vincent de Paul
received the same instructions, and ere^ long all the American
Trappists were united in a single community. Dom Augustine
purchased for ten thousand dollars a large piece of property,
and gave the house the form of an abbey. " Thirty-one poor
children, almost all orphans, there found instruction and the
necessaries of life. A community of Trappist nuns was founded
by the same zeal, and supported by the same vigilance. Finally,
at three or four miles distance, was an Ursuline convent, which
derived great advantage from the arrival of Dom Augustine.
These holy sisters had no priest to attend them ; the persecution
wnich drove the Trappists from the French empire gave them

■i

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IN THE UNITED STATES.

381

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many. Omnia propter electos^* Father Viucent de Paul was
appointed to go there every Sunday and holiday to hear confes-
sions and say Mass.

The Trappist nuns, Avho also had a temporary establishment
at New York, were founded in 1780, in Bas Valais, by Dom
Augustine. This holy abbot, seeing that a host of nuns of va-
rious orders had been driven from France for their fidelity to
their vows, resolved to gather these fragments of other insti-
tutes scattered in a foreign land. Under the new name of
Trappist nuns, he reconstituted the Cistercian nuns ; and as
Humbeline, Sister of St. Bernard, had, by her example, induced
the convent of GruUy to embrace the observance of Citeaux, so
Mademoiselle Lestrange generously seconded the zeal and pro-
jects of her brother. The austerities of the rule, moreover, al-
lured the Princess Louise Adelaide de Conde, who became the
Trappist Sister Mary Joseph ; and her vocation was most
precious to the whole order of La Trappe ; for it was purely
from respect for this grand-daughter of Louis XV. that the Czar
permitted the fugitive Trappists to rest in his States. In all
the vicissitudes of this period, the nuns of La Trappe felt ever /
blow directed against the monks ; and in this way several of the
Sisters sought refuge at New York.

Meanwhile, the fall of Napoleon opened France to the Trap-
pists, at the same time that it delivered the Church. Dom Au-
gustine availed himself of the moment to restore to his native
land the order of St. Bernard, convinced that his efforts would
be more successful in the Old Word. Leaving Father Vincent
de Paul, with six brothers, to wind up their affairs in New York,
he embarked for Havre in October, 1814, with twelve monks,
the Sisters, and pupils. Father Urban Guillet sailed at the

* Les Trappistes on TOrdre de Citeaux au XIX. Siecle, par Casimir Gaillar-
diii, ii. 886. ■•

•

382

THE CATHOLIC CIIUUCH

same tiino for RocliolK', with fifteen monks; and in tlio tbllow-
iug May tlie rest set sail for Halifax, whence they prooeedeJ to
France, liy an accident, however, Father Vincent de Paul was
left on shore, and founded La Trappe at Tracadie, in Nova Sco-
tia.* During their stay in the United States, the Trappist nuns
had formed several novices ; but as these preferred not to leave
the country, they obtained entrance among the Sisters of Charity,
through the influence of Rev. Mr. Moranville.f The monks,
too, had accessions ; among others, a pastor from Canada, who
took the name of Father Mary l-Jernard, and who efiected much
good in the West by his preaching.^

Thus did the long vacancy of the See from 1810 to 1815 de-
feat the establishment of the Dominicans, Ursulincs, and Trap-
pists. Doubtless, had a bishop then watched over the interests
of the diocese, religion would have prospered much sooner, and
the prelate would have taken measures to secure the communi-
ties which had already planted their tents there. Napoleon, by
persecuting the Church and imprisoning the Holy Father, caused
fatal delay in the election of Bishop Concanen's successor ; and
if a single diocese, so remote from the centre of Christianity,
had so much to suffer from the emperor's invasion of the riglits
of the Holy See, we may conceive their deplorable effects on
the whole Christian world.

* Louis Henri do Lcstrange (Dom Augustine) was born in Vivarais, in
1754, and on liis nomination as coadjutor to the Ar'^libishop of Vionne, in
1780, retired to La Trappe, to become tlie saviour c .' the order during the
revohition, and founder of the Trappist nuns. He died at Lyons, July
16, 1827.

t Sister Mary Joseph Llewellyn and Sister Scholastica Bean, of Emnicts-
burg, had been Trappist nuns. Another, unable to remain at Enuuetsburg,
from ill health, still survives.

J Louis Antoine Langlois Germain, born at Quebec, November 25, 1767,
■vas ordained in 1791, and successively acted as Curate of Ciuebec, Pastor
of Isle aux Coudres, and Chaplain, Director of the Ursulincs, In 1806, he
joined the Trappists at Baltimore, and died on the 28tli of November, 1810,
in high reputo for sanctity and austerity.

IN TUB UNITED STATES.

3S3

CHAPTER XXIV.

DIOCESE OF NEW YORK — (1815-1842).

Irais, in
Inne, in
Jng the
is, July

Inniets-
bturg,

, 1767,

iPustor

BOG, he

, 1810,

RIttht Rov. John Connolly, Bpcond Bishop of N*w York— Condition of the (Jloflcse—
Sketch of tho Kov. P. A. Malou— Bishop Connolly's first acts— Ills clergy— The Eov.
Mr Taylor, and his ambitious dcslRns— Conversions— Tho Rev. John Richard— Spread
of Catholicity— Death of Bishop Connolly— Very Rov, John Power, Administrator-
Right Rov. John Dubois, third Bishop of New York— Vlsitsllon of his diocese— Hl«
labors for the cause of education— Controversies with the Protestants— Very Rev.
Felix Varela— Rov. Thomas C. Levins— Dlfflcultles with trustees— German immigra-
tion—Conversion of Rev. Maximilian (Ertel — Appointment of a Coai\)utor— Death
of Bishop Dubois.

The Society of Jesus, during tho period in which the affairs of
New York had been committed to its care, had hibored with all
the zeal which is characteristic of its sous ; and nothing but tho
prolonged absence of a bishop and their own want of subjects
had prevented their establishing foundations of permanent good.
A second bishop had now been appointed to the See of New
York, and tho Fathers at that city only awaited his arrival to
return to Maryland, where their order greatly needed their co-
operation.

The choice of the Holy Father again fell on the Order of St.
Dominic, and he chose Father John Connolly, then, like his pred-
ecessor, Prior of St. Clement's, to organize the new diocese of
New York. The Right Rev. John Connolly was born on the
banks of the Boyne, near Navan, in 1750, and was educated in
Belgium. At an early age he proceeded to Rome, and there
spent most of his life in the convents of his order. He was for
many years the agent of the Irish bishops, and filled ^'ariou8
chairs as professor. So great was his knowledge of divinity and

■t~-^-

S84

THE CATHOLIC CilUKCU

BiKToil learning, that ho was sclcctccl by tlio Cardinal IVishop of
All)ano as (lui exuminor of can<liilates fur tlu) priesthood. In all
tlieso varied duties ho displayed tho greatest ability and virtue,
and is still remembered by his pupils — and many of them havo
been eminent in the Church — as a man of more than ordinary
mildness and gentleness of character. His predecessor, as wo
liave seen, had mado in(juiries as to the state of tho diocese, and
its posf^ibility of supporting. Bishop Connolly seems to have
obeyed the Vicar of Christ, and assumed cheerfully tho burden
of tho episcopate. Yet, for a man of nearly seventy, it was a
weight far too heavy. lie could, indeed, still inspire respect by
liis learning and piety, but all the vigor of his younger days was
needed for the arduous task of bringing into system and order
the unorganized elements of an American Church, where all,
clergy and laity alike, seemed in those days equally restive of
control. He was appointed in the fall of 1814, and was conse-
crated on tho 0th of November that year. Having mado some
preparations, he left his peaceful abode in the Eternal City in the
raonth of January, 1815, and set out to take possession of his
diocese. On his way, he visited his native island, and bid an
eternal farewell to all his kindred ; for he resolved on no consid-
eration to have about or near him a single relative. To secure
the nucleus of a clergy, he apparently applied to Kilkenny Col-
lege for some aspirants to holy orders, and obtained tho Rev.
Michael O'Gorman, whom he ordained and brought with him.
After this, he set sail from Dublin, but his voyage was long and
dangerous, and only after being tossed about for sixty-seven days
did he reach the city of Now York, where all supposed that
Providence had again deprived them of a chief pastor.

The diocese of which Bishop Connolly took possession, early
in 1816, comprised the State of New York and part of that of
New Jersey. Over this space were scattered some thirteen thou-
sand Catholics, with three Jesuit Fathers and one secular priest,

IN THE UNITED STATES.

385

.)p of
In all
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luvvo
liniiry

ttS NVO

e, and
) have
jurdeu

WU9 ft

ect by

tys was

I order

ere all,

stive of

I conse-

ie some
in the
of bis
bid an
consid-
secure
ly Col-
le Rev.
bitn.
mg and
[en days
led tbat

In, early
tbat of

■I
I

tbou-
priest,

the Rev. Mr. (^'arliorry, as the hoIo rcprosonlativos of the clergy.
Now York hud, in<l(.'(!cl, two churches, All)any another; but these
were the only shrines of religion. Two of the Jesuit Fathers
were soon after rccidlcd, and the Rov. Mr. Carberry proceeded to
Norfolk ; so that most of the missionary labors devolved on the
good bishop, who unmurmuringly assumed the duties of a parish
priest.

The Jesuit who renuvincd, and after leaving the order, died at
last in the city of Now York, was the Rev. Peter A. Malou, whose
history is so varied, that we cannot forbear giving it at some
length. Peter Anthony Malou, born at Y'pres, in the parish of
St. Peter's, on the 9th of October, lYSS, was always firmly at-
tached to the faith ; but at first experienced no vocation to the
ecclesiastical state, and on the 2d of Juno, 1777, married, at Brus-
sels, Mademoiselle Marie Louise Riga. By this marriage he had
two sons, the elder of whom, John Baptist Malou, is now senator
of the kingdom of Belgium. The latter bad six children, one of
whom has been Minister of the Finances, and another is Mon-
seigneur John Baptist Malou, Bishop of Bruges, universally known
by his solid and learned works. It is well known that in 1786 the
Belgians, driven to extremity by the religious innovations of the
emperor, Joseph II., rose against their oppressor, and after many
years of parliamentary struggle and bloody combats, they suc-
ceeded in expelling the Austrian troops from the country. On
the 26th of December, 1789, the States of Brabant solemnly
declared their independence ; and Catholic Belgium would have
been constituted at that period, forty years prior to the revolu-
tion of 1830, had not France treacherously invaded the country
in 1792, under the pretext of protecting it against the attacks of
the emperor. In this heroic resistance, inspired by the purest
attachment to the faith, the pupils of the theological seminary at
Louvain gave the example to the people, and rose on the 7th of
December, 17 80, because the emperor wished to force upon them

If r^

88G

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

III

=' 'I

professors imbued with Josephine principles, and the theological
works of Dr. Eiybal, which had been condemned at Rome.
When Peter Malou saw the emperor closing the seminaries, dis-
persing religious, seizing the property of the Church, everywhere
fomenting a spirit of revolt against the Holy See, and forbidding
all communication between the clergy and Rome ;* when he saw
that Joseph II. aimed at nothing less than the destruction of
Catholicity in his States, he put himself at the head of the move-
ment with an ardent patriotism, and played a very important
part in negotiation and on the field of battle. He was repeatedly
intrusted with the most delicate missions by the States of Flan-
ders, which then governed the country ; and maintained a very
active correspondence with the chiefs of the movement in the
other provinces. Having become general, he traversed West
Flanders to enrol volunteers, and organized an array : he equip-
ped several companies at his own expense, and gave his estate
and his person in defence of the cause of his country and
Church.

When the National Convention of France menaced Belgium
Avith a republican invasion. General Peter Malou was sent to
Paris by the States of Flanders, and boldly appeared before that
terrible assembly. He solicited at least delay, for it would have
been useless to ask more ; and he besought the French govern-
ment to defer the violent measures which had been decreed.
This dangerous appeal was made on the 27th of January, 1793,
six days after the infamous execution of Louis XVI.; and so

* Coxe's House of Austria, v, 362, This author, a Protestant clergyman,
attests the good government of the Belgian provinces, and blames Joseph
II. for seeking to destroy their religious institutions. " In spite of the
power and immunities of the clergy, no country in Europe possessed a
denser population, more opulent cities, or more widely diffused happiness.
These are incontestable proofs that the government was not, in general,
badly administered, and that, on the contrary, it was adapted to the geniiw
and manners of the people."

A i^'

loincal
Rome.
es, dis-
ywhere
bidding
he saw
jtion of
3 move-
iportant
jeatedly
of Flau-
l a very
t in the
id West
le equip-
lis estate
^try and

3elgmm
sent to

tore that

uld have
govern-
decreed.

ry, 1193,
and so

llcrgyman,
lea Joseph
^ite of the
Dssessed a
lappineaa.
in general,
jtbe geniun

IN THE UNITED STATES.

387

■

plainly did he show the injustice of the Convention, that the
Moniteur gave only a mutilated version of his speech. It is to bo
found in full in the seventh volume of the Proceedings of the Pro-
vincial Assembly of West Flanders, as the historian Borgnet notes.'*
The correspondence of Mr. Malou attests that the President of the
Convention, who had treated the other speakers with revolution-
ary coarseness, showed him much courtesy, and even kindness.
His generous efforts were, however, fruitless. The Convention
had resolved to invade Belgium, in order to find in its plun-
der means of continuing war ; and n'-« arguments could prevail
against such a decision. In consequence of these discussions,
Mr. Peter Malou was brought into contact with the most cele-
brated men in Europe. He was in active correspondence with
General Dumouriez, -with Merlin of Douai, and other renowned
conventionists. In a letter of Merlin's to the deputies of West
Flanders, we find this familiar expression — "Your famous Malou" —
which attests and depicts the position which the future Jesuit had
assumed among; his follow-citizens.

Mr. Malou had opposed with all his energy the French inva-
sion. On the approach of the armies, he had to become an exile,
and retired to Hamburg, whence he wrote an apology of his
conduct, in reply to the unjust accusations which always pursue
misfortune. He came to the United States in the month of
July, 1795, intending to prepare the way for the emigration of
his family. But during this voyage he had the affliction of losing
his wife, who died at Hamburg on the 18th of December, 1797,
and he returned to Europe in 1799. The destruction of his hap-

* Ilistoirc dcs Belies au fin da XVIII. Sieele, par Mr. Borgiiot. Bnis-
scls, 1844, ii. 141. This author speaks in the highest terms of tlie political
conduct of General Malou. Feller, in his " Journal Hiptorique et Litteraire"
of August 1, 1790, published an address of Mr. Malou to tlie patriot volun-
teers. The proceedings already cited contain several of the speeches,
proclamations, and a part of the correspondence of this brave defender of
his country.

; ■( I

388

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

il
»?

piness gave another turn to his thoughts, and in 1801 he re-
solved to embrace the ecclesiastical state. In October he entered
the Seminary of Wolsau, in Franconia, where he received minor
orders. Then, in 1805, he presented himself, under an assumed
name, at the novitiate of the Jesuit Fathers at Dunaburg, in
White Russia, and humbly asked admission as a lay brother.
Zealously employed in the lowly task of gardening. Brother
Malou was recognized by a visitor, who informed the Superior of
his real name ; and the ex-gencral was obliged to take upon him
more important functions. He was the model of the community
in fervor, humility, and perfect obedience. In 1811, he was sent
as a missionary to America, and arrived Avith P'ather Maximilian
de Rantzau. Attached at first to the New York Literary Insti-
tution, he was afterwards one of the piiests at St. Peter's, and
died in New York on the 13th of October, 1827, at the age of
seventy-four. His last days were embittered by the ingratitude
of the trustees : feeble in health, and suffering from lameness, he
was an object rather of their reverent care ; but in order to com-
pel him to leave, they applied to the Superior of his order at
Georgetown, who, however, declined to act on their request, re-
ferring them to the bishop. Dr. Connolly at last yielded to their
importunity, and requested his recall. Deeply grieved at this,
to him, apparently unkind treatment, the aged priest asked to
withdraw from the Society of Jesus, and remained in New York,
awaiting means from Europe for his support.* In 1825, the Su-
periors invited him to return ; but, from motives which satisfied
the general of the order, he preferred to remain a secular priest.
He was an exemplary missionary, loving poverty and the poor,
and devoting himself to the service of the sick, to whom he gave

* For ti.ose facts we are indebted to extraeta of letters furnished by the
kindness of the Abb6 J. B. Ferland, of Quebec, whose historical labors en-
able him to throw great light on our Church lilstory, and whose courtesy
and kindness to fellow-laborers are beyond expression.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

389

he re-
entered
L inii\or
issumed
3urg, in
brother.
Brother
perior of
pon him
namunity
was sent
aximilian
ary Insti-
ter's, and
le age of
iM-atitude
leness, ho
ir to com-
order at
■quest, re-
to their
at this,
asked to
ew York,
5, the Su-
satisfied
liar priest,
the poor,
he gave

ihed by the
^1 labors on-
|se courtesy

all that he had. Political troubles had wasted the great fortune
which he had possessed in Belgium. His brother-in-law, Cuuon
Riga, who had saved the wreck, sent him a trifling pension, in
which the wretched always had a share. He also took a gi'eat
interest in the schools, which he often visited, questioning the
pupils, to observe their progress ; and the pupils long preserved
their veneration for Father Malou, and told their children, in turn,
how, when they were good, he would show them his snuff-box,
on which was painted the miniature portrait of one of his chil-
dren. The scholars were greatly astonished that the Jesuit
Father had been married ; but he offered God in sacrifice the
pain of being separated from his children. He left them as a
heritage a venerated name, and the example of his ecclesiastical
virtues ; and Catholic Europe knows how well the illustrious
Bishop of Bruges has followed in his steps.*

Such was almost the only priest whom the bishop had to rep-
resent the body of his clergy; but he zealously assumed the
charge of his immense diocese, and endeavored to provide for its
wants. Remaining himself at New York, he dispatched the
Rev. Mr. O'Gorman to Albany and the northern parts of the
State, extending his visits to Cartliage, where a church was soon
erected amid a Catholic population, and saying Mass in many
parts for scattered Catholics who had not seen a priest for years,
and whose children looked on the service of the Church with
amazement.

On investigating the state of his diocese, the good bishop soon
saw a work of difiiculty before him. In the churches that ex-
isted, he found every thing in the hands of trustees, who seemed
to have very little idea of the constitution of the Catholic
Church, or disposition to submit to it. That a bishop should ap-

* We have been so happy as to receive from Bishop Malou many details
as to the political lil'o of his emiuent grandfather.

I ■:

S90

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

point a pastor to a church, seemed to thein ridiculous ; on th(
Protestant principle, they themselves looked out for a good
preacher, or what they considered such, and invited him. Bishop
Connolly was immediately called upon by the trustees to be the
channel of these invitations. Those of Albany wished the Rev.
Mr. Corr, of Mary's Lane Chapel, and offered eight hundred dol-
lars a year ; two trustees of St. Peter's, in New York, desired to
have as their pastor Father William V. Ilarold, then at St.
Thomas's College, near Dublin, offering to pay his passage and
settle his salary when ho came. Other trustees wished him
to write to Ireland for Rev. Messrs. England and Taylor, of
Cloyne.

We find these scanty notes in his diary,* but we do not know
to what extent he acceded to their wishes. The last named of
these clergymen we shall soon find at New York, and giving to
the encroachments of the trustees all the influence he possessed.

The good bishop sought and obtained clergymen with whose
abilities and principles he was acquainted, and gathered several
young aspirants to holy orders, who, under his training, became
zealous and devoted priests. In 1817 and 1818 we find the Rev.
Arthur Langdill and the celebrated Father Charles D. Ffreucli
in the active discharge of the ministry in his diocese, the former
at Newburg, and generally on the North River, except at New
York and Albany ; the latter at New York. Father Ffrench was
a convert, and the grandson of one who obtained titles and
honors from the English government in 1V98. But Avhile the
head of the family thus assumed the badge of servitude and
treachery, several members of it embraced the Catholic faith,
and devoted themselves to the service of their Catholic coun-
trymen at home and abroad. Among these was Father Charles
D. Ffrencli, who, after entering the Order of St. Dominic in

* See Bishop Baylcy's Sketch of the Catholic Churcli.

:
i

IN THE UNITED STATES.

391

on the

good
Bishop
be tho
ic Rev.
cd dol-
iired to

at St.
ffc and
kI him
f\ov, of

)t know

anied of

iving to

ssessed.

li whose
several
became

the Rev.
Ffiench

3 former
at New

inch was
ties and
hile the
ude and
lie faith,
ic coun-
Chaiies
minic in

Ireland, came to Amevica, and attempted to establish a house
of his order at St. Johns, New Brunswick, then subject to the
Bishop of Quebec. He came in the winter of 181*7 to New
York, where he had relatives among the most influential Catho-
lics, and was soon made one of the pastors of St. Peter's; but
the trustee troubles which ensued induced him to leave, and he
then for many 5'ears labored in the missions of Maine and other
parts of New England, and at last died at Lawrence, in Massa-
chusetts, in January, I80I, at the advanced age of eighty-five
years, in the fifty-first year of his priesthood.*

The Rev. Mr. Taylor, invited by the trustees, came apparently
in 1818, and soon gave the trustee encroachments in a new form.
He was a popular preacher, and deeming the bishop a good but
incapable man, aspired to the See himself, and actually formed a
party, into which he even drew some of the clergy, the object of
which was to have Bishop Connolly recalled and himself chosen.
He actually went to Rome to efl:ect this, but failed ; and as the
bishop refused to receive him, he proceeded to Boston, where ho
gained the esteem of Bishop Cheverus, and following him to
France, died while preaching at the Irish College in Paris, in
1828.t

During his short stay in New York he mingled much in Pro-
testant society, and sought to remove all prejudice from their
minds. To what extent he carried his concession may be seen
by a prayer-book — " The Christian's Monitor ; or. Practical
Guide to Future Happiness" — which he compiled and published.
This book is remarkable for its apologetic notes, and still more
so for some of the headings, the strangest being that which
reads, " The celebration of the Lord's Supper, together with the
Holy Communion, commonly called the Mass !"

* Catliolic Alinaimc, 1852, p. 243.

t See his observations on Bishop Hobart's charge, entitled " Corruptiona
of the Church oi'Konie," cited by Dr. White iu his Life of Mra. Setoa.

■n

392

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Hopes of extensive conversions were probably entertained, and
were not unreasonable, as the conversions of the Rev. Messrs.
Thayer, Holmes, and Barber, in New I'^ngland, had been followed
in New York by tliat of the younger Barber, Kev. Mr. Richards,
of the Methodist Church, the Rev. Mr. Kewley, rector of the
Episcopal Church of St. George, and subsequently of the Rev.
George Edmund Ironside, the Inst named of whom, in reply to
the assaults made upon him, openly defended the step lie had
taken. Bishop Ilobart himself, the Episcopalian 13ishop of
New York, repeatedly expressed a wish to end his days in the
bosom of the Roman Catholic Church, and from the friendship
which subsisted between him and Bishop Connolly, hopes were
entertained that liis visit to Rome, with letters of introduction
from Dr. Connolly, Avould lead to liis conversion. This grace,
however, in the designs of Providence, was reserved for his
daughter, the god-child of Mother Seton, and wife of the Rt.
Rev. Levi S. Ives, Bishop of North Carolina, who has so lately
sacrificed all to become an humble member of the flock of Peter.

Of the earlier converts, Mr. Kewley returned to Iiis native
country,* and is said to have become a religious in Belgium.
Mr. John Richards was in 1807 a Methodist clergyman, zealously
preaching in various parts of Western New York. In order to
extend his sect he crossed to Upper Canada, and finally, in Au-
gust, 1807, reached Montreal. Here, in his zeal, he wished to
convert the Sulpitians of that city, and waited upon thom for
that purpose. They received him witli the utmost courtesy, and
gave him books explaining the Catholic doctrines. He read
them attentively, and returned, not to convert, but to be in-
structed. For several months he was closely engaged in examin-
ing the grounds of the Catholic faith. "As I progress," ho
writes in his diary, " the truth seems to me more clear, so that I

* Stone, Life of Kev. Dr. Milnor, p. 212.

IN THE UMTED STATES.

393

iiicd, aiul

r. McsHi's.
. followed
Richards,

)!• of til (3

the Rev.
I reply to
p lie had
bishop of
^% in the
neiidship
jpes "sveio
roductiou
lis grace,
d for hia
f the Rt.
so lately
of Peter,
is native
Belgium,
zealously
order to
, in Au-
/ished to
leni for
tcsy, and
le read
o he in-
examin-
|i-ess," ho
so that I

.am fully convinced no doctrine has hcen more niisroprcsentcd, as
far as I can understand it. I see nothing but what has the sanc-
tion of God's word." Called upon by the Methodist Society to
explain his visits to the Catholic clergy, he declined till he had
finally made up his mind. Ho then announced his detcrniiiia-
tion in a letter of remarkable candor and earnestness.

This step excited the greatest consternation among the Meth-
odists, and as Mr. Richards had abstained from any public expo-
sition of the causes of his conversion, it was not easy to refute
the arguments which had influenced him. One Methodist cler-
gyman, however, undertook to counteract the evil done, and in a
curious little book, begins by supposing the grounds on which
Mr. Richards acted, and then, quite to his own satisfaction, slunvs
them to be fallacious.*

Of all this Mr. Richards took no notice. lie entered the sem-
inary, and after a thorough course of study, was ordained, and
for many years edified Canada by his zeal and devotcdness.
Candid and upright in life, in death he was a martyr of charity.
The number of Catholics who were thus gained by conversion
was, however, small ; but the Catholic population was now rap-
idly increasing; emigration had become a tide, and in three
years ten thousand Irish Catholics landed at New York, actually
doubline' the number of the faithful. For these, churches,
schools, every thing were to be provided.

"We have seen how hopefully Catholicity had begun in New
York, with its Ursuline convent, its Jesuit college, its Trappist

* An inquiry into the fundamental prinoiplea of Koman Ciitliulics, in a
letter to Mr. Jolin Richards; by Samuel Coate. Brooklyn, 1S09. Mr. Kich-
ards' journal at the time of hia conversion is still e.xtant, and we arc indebted
for a copy of it to tlic Sulpitiana of Montreal. Mr. Richards was ordained on
the 25th of July, 1813, and died at Montreal en the 23d of July, 1847, of the
typhus, caught while attending the emigrants. Martin; Manuel du Pelerin
de N. U. de Bon Secours. He is mentioned with singular praise anil mod-
eration in Bangs' History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, i.

391

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

nionastory. All tlicsu, however, hud dlrtiippearecl, and Dit^hop
Connolly was luuiblo to supply the deficiency. Without reve-
nues, relying entirely on the bodies of trustees and their caprice,
with a cathedral loaded with debt, ho did not even venture to
think of erecting a seminary, and had no schools in which to
imbue Catholic youth with Catholic sentiments, or counteract
the "almost invincible repugnance of the American youth to the
ecclesiastical state."

In 1817 he applied, however, to his future successor, the Rev.
John Dubois, then director of the Sisters of (Jharity, for Sisters
to direct the orphan asylum at the cathedral. Mrs. Seton could
not resist the appeal from her native city, and chose Sister Kosc
"White, Cecilia O'Conway, and Felicitas Brady, who arrived in
New York on the 20th of June, 1817, and "commenced in an
humble way an institution destined to become a most flourishing
asylum, and what is more, founded, by the introduction of their
order, those many establishments of charity, mercy, and educa-
tion which cover the State of New York, and in which alono
the rule and dress of Mother Seton are preserved unaltered.

" A small wooden building on Prince-street sufliced then to
hold the Sisters and the five orphans first committed to their
care ; but the number rapidly increased, and schools under their
direction multiplied in various parts."*

The Erie Canal, which was begun in 1819, drew the Irish
emigrants to that part of the State, and first gave the Catholics
numerical importance in Central New York. Three years later,
liishop Connolly made a visitation of his diocese, which was pro-
ductive of great consolation to himself and good to his widely
scattered flock. At Albany he received into the Church Mr.
Keating Lawson and Miss Eldredge, both of Lansingburg ; and
proceeding westward, enjoyed the hospitality of Dominic Lynch,

* White's Life of Mr.s. Seton, p. 339.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

395

Esq., at Rome, and John C. Devereux, Esq., of Utica, in both of
whom the Church found zealous and able supporters.*

Bishop Connolly was not insensible to the progress of Catho-
licity in other parts of the Union, but actively co-operated with
his brother prelates, and essentially contributed to the erection
of new Sees. Under his administration the good bishop had
seen several churches arise — St. John's at Utica, St. Patrick's in
Rochester. In 1822 he could number eight priests on the mis-
sion, three of them ordained by himself. One of these, the Rev.
Mr. Bulger, an unwearied missionary, then served, as his parish,
the present diocese of Newark ; the parishes of the Rev. Michael
Carroll and the Rev. John Faruan comprised the diocese of Al-
bany, and that of the Rev. Patrick Kelly that of Buffalo ; while
not a single clergyman was stationed in what is now the diocese
of Brooklyn, where in 1823 the Rev. Mr. Shanahan said his first
Mass and began to gather a congregation.

Every priest at this time had his appointed catechism classes
before divine service on Sundays, and had rosary societies, not
only in each church, but in most of the stations attached to them.
Their duties, especially out of the city, were very laborious, and
subjected them to many hardships, of which they have left us no
record.

The bishop subsequently ordained three other clergymen, two
of whom still survive in the active discharge of their duties.f
The Rev. Mr. O'Gorman was for some years with the bishop at
the cathedral, but in the month of November, 1824, he and the
Rev. Mr. Bulger, like himself a native of Kilkenny, and ordained
by Bishop Connolly, expired within a week of each other, and
the good bishop, worn out with toil and trouble, soon followed
them to the tomb. He was taken sick on his return from Mi*.

* For many of these details, and much valuable information as to this pe-
riod, we are indebted to the venerable Rev. John Shanahan.
t Rov. John Shanahan and Rev. Mr. Conroy.

1 1

y
i il

396

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

O'Gonnan's funeral, but struggled throngh tlie winter, disoluug*
ing without eoinplaitit the additional duty devolved upon liiin,
and actually officiating within a week of his death. Attended
by the Rev. Mr. Shauahan, ho expired at his residence on Scxa-
gcsima Sunday evening, February Gth, 1 825.

His funeral was attended by tliousands, and all sytnpatliizrd
■with the devoted Catholici*, who regretted the loss of "the pious,
worthy, and venerable Bisliop Connolly."

The Rev. John Power, wlio now became administrator of the
diocese, was born near Roscarberry, in Ireland, of a very respect-
able family, on the 19th of June, 1702. Afttn' a <1istinguishcd
course of study at Maynooth, he was ordained, and for a timo
taught divinity in the Diocesan Seminary at Cork. Invited by
the trustees of St. Peter's, lie came to New Voik in 1810. Ho
was an able theologian, a most eloquent preacher, and a faithful
priest. His zeal and charity are still proverbial, and the yellow
fever, which ravaged New York at the time of his arrival, aft'ord-
od him ample exercise for his devotedness. He administered the
diocese for two years with great ability, the death of two priests
and the suspension of two others greatly increasing the difliculty
of his position.*

Under the next Bishop of New York he became vicar-general,
and continued in that important post till his death. Possessing
great eloquence, his appeals, especially those on behalf of the
orphans, always obtained a most plentiful collection from the
charity of the faithful. As a controversialist he possessed great
skill and power, free from all aciimony and bitterness, and his
writings, doctrinal and controvereial, ofiected at the time no un-
important good. St. Peter's Church was the only field of his
ministry from his arrival in New York to his death, and under
his care the present noble pile was reared.

* Bishop Bayley'u Sketch of the Catholic Church.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

397

of tho

great

» 5

While the "Very Rev. Dr. Power administered the diocese of
New York, the Church gradual ly extended. Tho Catholics in
tho city had become too numerous, and many too far removed
from the cathedral and St. Peter's, to be able to attend them or
find accommodations there. A church in Hheriff-street, belong-
ing to the Presbyterians, was accordingly })urehased in 1830,
and opened for divine worship on the 14th of May in that year.
In thd opening discourse pronounced by tho pastor, the Kev.
Hatton Walsh, he says : " At no distant period a single church
had been amply sufficient to contain the Catholics of that vast
commercial city ; and when it had been deemed expedient to
erect a sumptuous cathedral in honor of the Most High, it was
more than the warmest friends of Catholicity could then expect
that its spacious aisles should be filled with the followers of the
ancient faith ; but so diligently had tho vineyard of the Lord
been cultivated, and so fruitfully had it flourished, that in order
to aftbrd an opportunity to every one of assisting at tho sacred
mysteries of our religion, it had been considered necessary to
procure for their accommodation this additional temple."*

Meanwhile the Holy See had, on tho recommendation of the
American prelates, raised to the vacant See the Rev. John Du-
bois, founder of Mount St. Mary's College, at Emmetsburg, whose
labors in Virginia and Maryland have been mentioned elsewhere.
Porn at Paris on tho 20th of August, 1164, he had received a
careful education at the college of Louis le Grand, at tho time
that tho Abbe Proyart was the director, and when it numbered
among its pupils M'Carthy, afterwards a celebrated preacher of
the Society of Jesus ; Legris Duval and Leonard, both eminent
clergymen, and also (men whom Franco will over remember with
horror) Robespierre and Camille DesmouUns. After reading di-

* A discourse delivered at the opening of St. Mary'a Church, by the Eov.
Hatton Walsh. New York, 1826 ; p. 7.

398

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

.• 1 'i

"1 i r

vinity with tlio OrHtoiiiiiis, ho was onlaiiu-d about 1780, an<l stn
lioiieil at St. Sulpict'. Having in a iiU)mout of wcukiit'ss taken
tho couHtitutioual oath, ho soon saw tho danger, and resolving tc
loavo Franco, Hailed for America with letters of introduction from
Lafayette, and after arriving safely nt Norfolk iu 1791, becaino
uu iuuiatc of tho family of tho lion. James Monroe, atlerwardti
IVosidcnt of tho United States, whoso relalivo and namesako ia
now a member of tho true fold.

On liis appointment to tho Soo of Now York, Dr. Dubois pro-
pared, notwithstanding his advanced ago, to assumo tho duties
which devolved upon him, and having received his cross and
ring from tho kindness of tho venerable Charles Carroll of Car-
vollton, was consecrated at Baltimore on Sunday, tho 'JOth of Oc-
tober, 1820, by Archbishop Marechal, amid a crowd of his old
pupils, who wished to give tliis last mark of attachment to their
old director, and three days later took j)ossossion of his See.*
On his arrival at Now York his cathedral ^^ •^ crowded, no loss
than four thousand of tho faithful 2)res.siug around its altar
to receive tho blessing of the new pastor.f Murmurs however,
were heard ; the Catholics of New York wore chiefly of Irish
origin, and in their eyes the new bishop was a foreigner ; nor
did they conceal their dissatisfaction. Firm and decided in his
opinions and conduct, Bishop Dubois was not disposed to ihitter
or soothe. " tie is going to govern strongly in his strong way,"
Avrote his holy friend. Dr. Brute, the future Bishop of Vin-
cenues; and the bishop soon issued a pastoral, !u which, claimiuf
the rights of an American citizen, both by liis naturalizatio-.
and services, he denied any ground to object to his nationality,
and commentino' severely on abuses whicli prevailed, he avowed

* Blsliop Bayloy'fc lire, 'kctcli of the Ciitholic Church, pp. 80-86. An-
nales do la Propiigfttion d- >,. Fo-, iv. 251.

t Annales de 1ft P-opj^gatiiJi de la Foi. iv. 447. Bisliop Bayley's Brief
Sketch, p. 92.

'€

> !

IN THE UNITED STATES.

399

way,
Viii-

h'w tloteriniimtion to bring tho discipliuo of the diocoi'C to tlio
stniulard of tho sacrod caiioiifl.

Now York city then contained, according to his calcuUition,
thirty-flvo thousand Catliolics, and tho diocoso ouo hundred and
fifty tbuUK.'Tid, with ci^ht churches and oiglitcon priests. Ta
roaiiz'5 il.o, actual position of atl'airs tho aged prehito began a
visifntion of his vast dioceso, encouraging tlio Catholics, hearing
contf sious, and administering tho sacraments. Albany m^eded
eucouragenient in building a now church, and tho presence of tho
blshi ip gave it. At Bufl'alo ho said Mass in the Courthouse, i j-
ceived a grant of land for tho erection of the since famous church
of St. Louis, and blessed it amid tho general admiration — Catho-
lics of Ireland, France, Germany, and Switzerland harmoniously
joining in tho ceremony. Before returning to his episcopal city,
Bishop Dubois also visited the Indian village of St. Regis, which
lay partly in his diocese, and where tho American part was in
open opposition to its pastor, who dwelt on the Canadian side.
Uero, as elsewhere, he administered tho sacrament of confirma-
tion, but was not called upon to baptize or confess, the Indian'-
being, for all their foolish obstinacy, more blessed than their
white brethren in the possession of a church and regular pastor.

The wants of his diocese were now before tho bishoj), and ho
saw the pressing necessity of a seminary and college, of schools
for boys, of a hospi.al, especially for emigrants, and of asylums to
save 'bo orphans, ;•< well as of churches at almost every point to
enable the scattered Catholics to worship God. Hov/ much would
he have realized, had ho been seconded by the flock committed to
his care! But unfortunately tho die had been cast; the trustee
interest was arrayed against him, and his projects were either
traversed or disregarded. Still, ho never forsook them, and to tho
last labored t" supply the deficiencies under which the diocese
labored.

Without awaiting the projected Council at Baltimore, he ro

> !i

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luii;

400

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

solved to proceed to Europe in search of aid, and before departing,
received from the Association for the Propagation of the Faith
a considerable allowance — a favor which his friend Dr. Bruto
had obtained him. With this he aided the Catholics of Albany
in erecting their church, and redeemed that of Newark, just
about to be sacrificed. Thus relieved on two points, he next, in
1837, purchased Christ Church, in Ann-street, from the Episco-
palians, and stationed in Brooklyn the Rev. John Walsh, who
thus became the first resident pastor in that city, now one of the
largest in the Union, and itself an episcopal See.

Bishop Dubois reached France in October, 1829, and pro-
ceeded to Rome to confide his pains, his trials, and the number-
less obstacles which he met, to the father of the faithful and the
venerable Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda. On terminating
the affairs which had called him to the Holy City, and having
procured such aid as he was able, he returned to New York, and
began his endeavors to rear the establishments of which he saw
the greatest need.

A house of education for youth and seminary combined was
his project. An Irish Brotherhood, under Brother Boylen, had
proposed schools in the city, but the trustees would not consent
to the deed being made to the brothers direct, and Brother Boy-
len himself proving very unfit, the plan failed. The bishop, con-
ceiving that a spot at some distance from the city would be
most advantageous for the purpose, purchased some property at
Nyack, on the North River, and laid the corner-stone of the col-
lege on the 29th of May, 1833. This step aroused all the big-
otry of the enemies of Catholicity ; the pulpits echoed with loud
declaimers against the Church ; the application for an incorpora-
tion was opposed by an eager body of remonstrants, and the Rev.
Dr. Brov/nlee preached so zealously in the neighborhood of
Nyack, and so deeply impressed on the inhabitants of that part
the danger of having a Catholic college there, that the college

i I

1 I

IN THE UNITED STATES.

401

3 departing,
f the Faith

Dr. Bruto
5 of Albany
ewark, just

he next, in
the Episco-
Valsh, who
■ one of the

>, and pro-
xe number-
ful and the
ierminating
and having
York, and
ich he saw

ibined was
oylen, had
ot consent
)ther Boy-
shop, con-
would be
foperty at
f the col-
the big-
with loud
corpora-
the Eev.
hood of
hat part
college

itself was accidentally destroyed by fire ! No doubt can exist in
the mind of any reasonable man that the torch of an incendiary
was applied to this Catholic institution, as it had already been to
St. Mary's Church in 1831 ; for threats had not been withheld,
and the bishop had even sought the protection of the authorities
for his rising seat of learning.* Yet so it was : the men whose
chief capital was to accuse Catholics of ignorance, moved heaven
and earth, and branded their own souls with guilt, in order to pre-
vent Catholics from affording a suitable education to their children.

Bishop Dubois next endeavored to establish a college at Brook-
lyn, where Cornelius Heeny, Esq., offered ground for the purpose ;
but his conditions proved onerous, and the plan was abandoned.
A subsequent attempt at Lafargeville, in the northern part of the
State, was more successful, but it was too remote from the great
body of the Catholics, and the college was finally closed.

The excitement against the Catholics, of which we have
spoken, was entirely the work of clergymen who lost no occasion
of attacking the Catholic doctrines and the character of Catho-
lics as individuals and as citizens. They were not, however, un-
answered. The Very Rev. Dr. Power, the Very Rev. Felix
Varela, the Rev. Mr. Schneller, and the Rev. Thomas C. Levins,
met their antagonists with zeal and ability. Of the first of
these clergymen we have already spoken. The Rev. Mr. Varela
was no less eminent a man. Born at Havana, in the island of
Cuba, in IVST, he early devoted himself to the ecclesiastical
state, and became a distinguished professor in the University of
San Carlos, in his native city. A man of great charity, he was
known and esteemed by all, and was unanimously chosen a
deputy to the Spanish Cortes under the Constitution in 1822.
Protesting against the overthrow of the new government, he
became an exile, and in 1823 chose for his new home the soil

* Varela, Cartas a Elpidio, ii. 143. New York, 1838.

402

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

of the United States. He was totally unacquainted -with tht
language, and the climate during the first years of his residence
nearly proved fatal to him. In spite of honorable invitations to
proceed to other countries, he preferred to remain and labor for
the Catholics of the United States. " I am in affection," he
says, " a native of this country, although I am not nor ever will
be a citizen, having made a firm resolution to become a citizen of
no other country after the occurrences which have torn me from
my own. I never expect to see it again, but I think that I owe it
a tribute of my love and respect by uniting myself to no other."
He landed in Philadelphia in 1823, but soon proceeded to
New York, and was successively assistant at St. Peter's, pastor
of Christ Church, and of the Church of the Transfiguration, which
he erected. He was a solid theologian, and wrote several works
in his native language, which circulated extensively through Cuba
and Spanish America, and in English contributed extensively to
the Catholic papers and periodicals. Of these fugitive pieces of
his, that entitled " The Five Different Bibles distributed and sold
by the ximerican Bible Society" was probably the happiest, and
attracted most notice. It compelled that Society to throw off
the mask, and not condemn a Catholic translation in one lan-
guage while they circulated it in another, or to omit in one
edition certain books as uninspired, and put them in another as
inspired. Dr. Varela did not shrink from oral discussion, and
as early as 1831 accepted an invitation to defend the Catholic
doctrine in an assembly of ministers presided over by the noto-
rious Dr. Brownlee, who, finding the audience completely aston-
ished and convinced by the reasoning of the talented Cuban
ecclesiastic, endeavored to persuade the meeting that Dr. Varela
had stated what was not Catholic doctrine, and that he would
be surely suspended by his bishop.*

* Cartas a Elpidio, ii.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

403

ited with th«:
his residence
invitations to
and labor for
affection," he
nor ever will
ne a citizen of
torn me from
c that I owe it
to no other."
proceeded to
'eter's, pastor
iration, which
several works
through Cuba
extensively to
tive pieces of
uted and sold
happiest, and
to throw off
in one Ian-
omit in one
another as
cussion, and
ic Catholic
)y the noto-
etely aston-
nted Cuban
t Dr. Varela
at he would

It is, however, chiefly for his zeal as a pastor, and for his
boundless charity, that he will be remembered by the faithful of
New York. How he lived was a wonder to his friends, for he
gave away every thing to the poor — the clothing off his back,
the spoons from his table, when he had not the money to be-
stow ; and these acts would not have been known, had not the
objects of his charity been on two occasions, to his great distress,
arrested as thieves. He inspired his congregation with a spirit
of piety, and will long be remembered by the faithful whom he
guided in the way, together with the holy Carthusian Fatlicr,
Alexander Mopiatti, who was for a time the partner of his labors.
After nearly thirty years' labor in the ministrj^, the Rev. Mr.
Varela died, on the 18tli of February, 1853, at St. Augustine,
whither he had retired for his health.

The Rev. Mr. Schneller is still in the ministry, in the diocese
of Brooklyn, and Avas long pastor at Albany, as we shall see
elsewhere. The Rev. Thomas E. Levins Avas a memoer of the
Society of Jesus. Possessing great mathematical talents, skilful
as a lapidary, a thorough theologian and dialectician, he was too
versatile to endure the confinement of a college, and, contrary to
the rules of his order, contributed to the Washington press arti-
cles which attracted universal attention. When the authorship
became known, he Avas compelled to leave the Society of Jesus,
and came to the diocese of New York. As pastor of St. Pat-
nck's, he Avas the favorite of the people, especially from his con-
troversial talents, and the opponents of Catholicity justly dreaded
his arguments. Unfortunately, he Avas deficient in amiability of
character, and his asperity led him to treat the bishop with dis-
respect and disobedience. At last. Bishop Dubois silenced him,
and a struggle at once arose : the trustees of St. Patrick's ad-
hered to Mr. Levins, and refused to pay the salary of the new
pastor appointed by the bishop. To widen the breach, they also
lamed the Rev. Mr. Levins rector of the Free School, with a

i \

i^ I

40i

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

salary sufficient for his support. A new conflict resulted : a
Sunday-school teacher appointed by the bishop was ordered out
of the house by the rector, and on his return the next Sunday, he
was stopped by a constable ready to arrest him on the written or-
der of the trustees. The bishop, gricA'ed to the heart at an insult
to his authority thus openly given, addressed a letter to the con-
gregation of his cathedral. " The trustees seem to think," he
says, " that they are at liberty to employ whatever power they
can extract from the charter, or obtain from the civil laws as a
corporation, in a kind of perennial conflict with and against the
ecclesiastical authority and the discipline of the Church, which
they should be the firmest and foremost to uphold, as Catholics
first, and as trustees afterwards. It is possible that the civil law
gives them power to send a constable to the Sunday-school, and
eject even the bishop himself. But, if it does, it gives them, we have
no doubt, the same right to send him into the sanctuary, and remove
any of these gentlemen from before the altar. And is it your inten-
tion that such power be exercised by your trustees ? If so, then
it is almost time for the ministers of the Lord to forsake your
temple, and erect an altar to their God, around which religion
shall be free, the Council of Trent fully recognized, and the laws
of the Church applied to the government and regulation of the
Church."

Proceeding to the root of the evil, the usurpation by the
trustees of authority which the Church never gave — that of ap-
pointing the pastor to administer the sacraments, the choir to
take part in the performance of divine worship, the sexton to
take care of the altar, the teacher to guide the young — he
showed how utterly inconsistent it was with the very first ideas
of the Catholic Church, and announces his resolution to extirpate
it. " Do not suppose that the Church of God, because she has
no civil support for her laws and discipline, is therefore obliged
to see them trampled on by her own children, without any means

IN THE UNITED STATES.

405

ct resulted : a
'as ordered out
ext Sunday, be
the written or-
irt at an insult
ter to the con-
to think," he
3r power they
ivil laws as a
id against the
Dhurch, which
i, as Catholics
t the civil law
ay-school, and
them, we have
ry, and remove
it your inten-
If so, then
forsake your
hich religion
and the laws
ation of the

ion by the
that of ap-
le choir to
e sexton to
young — he
r first ideas
to extirpate
se she has
)re obliged
any means

for their preservation. She has means ; and it is necessary that
her discipline be restored, and the abuses on the part of your
trustees, to which wo have alluded, be disavowed and re-
moved."

The trustees, however, did not yield ; they threatened to cut off
the bishop's own salary, unless he gave them such clergymen as
they asked ; but they little knew the spirit of the aged prelate.
" Gentlemen," he replied, " you may vote me a salary or not ; I
need little ; I can live in a basement or a garret ; but whether I
come up from my basement or down from my garret, I shall still
be your bishop."

The Rev. Mr. Levins was, however, sensible that this struggle
could only injure him, and retired from the field. Irreproach-
able in his moral conduct, he resided near the bishop, engaged
in literary pursuits or mathematical studies, and even employed
his talents as engineer on the Croton Aqueduct. Restored
some years after, he died at New York, on the 6th of May,
1843.

These were not the only troubles under the administration of
Bishop Dubois. The outrage at Charlestown had its syripathi-
zers in New York, and a couple of years later, a mob assembled
to destroy St. Patrick's Cathedral ; but they knew little of the
Catholics of New York when they devised their plans. The
church was put in a state of defence : the streets leading to it
were torn up, and every window was to be a point whence mis-
siles could be thrown on the advancing horde of sacrilegious
wretches; while the wall of the churchyard, rudely crenelled,
bristled with the muskets of those ready for the last struggle for
the altar of their God and the graves of those they loved. So
fearful a preparation, unknown to the enemies of religion, came
upon them like a thunderclap when their van had nearly reached
the street leading to the Cathedral ; they fled in all directions, in
dismay ; and so complete has the prestige been, that neither in

I i

1! '
i

406

TILE CATHOLIC CHURCH

1844 nor in 1855 was there any demonstration against tin
churches in New York.*

New York could now number several churches, and others haft
arisen in various parts of the diocese. These were not all, how-
ever, for Catholics of the English tongue. Emigrants from Ger-
many began to pour in, many of whom were Catholics, and
among the new churches we find that of St. Nicholas, for the
Germans, due chiefly to the zeal and devotedness of the Rev.
John RaflFeiner, a native of Brixia, in the Tyrol, who, in 1833,
arriving in the country, first began to labor exclusively among
the German Cntholics, not only in New York, but in the vicinity,
at Brooklyn, "W illiamsburg, Macopin, in New Jersey, and even as
far as Boston, Utica, and Rochester, in almost all of which he
erected the churches or prepared the ground completely for
others.f

This German emigration was not all induced by political rea-
sons, or the desire of bettering their condition in life. In aston-
ishment and shame, the Protestants of the United States beheld
numbers arrive whom the intolerance of the Prussian king had
forced to abandon their happy homes. Whole villages, with
their Lutheran pastors, preferred to risk all in seeking the New
World, to submitting to the tyrannical behests of their Prot-
estant monarch, who sought to constitute the various churches,
as he did his army. Among the pastors who accompanied the
exiles was Rev. J "hn James Maximilian (Ertel, a graduate of the
University of Erlang. He had hoped, in free America, to find
the Lutheran churches faithful to their original form ; but, to his
disappointment, he beheld them voluntarily blending with those
churches which all the power of Prussia could not force him to
accept. All the doctrines of Luther had been abandoned, ex-

* Cartas a Elpidio, ii. 142.

t He erected St. Nicholas's and St. John's at New York, Holy Trinity at
Boston, Holy Trinity in Williamsburg, and another at Macopin.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

407

m against thi

and others hub
'Q not all, liow-
•ants from Ger-
Catholics, and
cholas, for the
ss of the Rev.
who, in 1833,
lusively among
in the vicinity,
jy, and even as
11 of which he
completely for

>y political rea-
ife. In aston-
States beheld
siau king had
villages, with
dng the New
of their Prot-
ons churches,
ompanied the
aduate of the
lerica, to find
but, to his
g with those
force him to
Dandoned, ex-

Holy Trinity at
in.

cept his hostility to Rome; and this feeling, which had been
nursed by the arbitrary princes and parliaments of Europe, he
thought least characteristic of all of the Church founded by our
Lord, He began to examine the great religious question, and he
was soon convinced that the Reformers had no divine mission to
alter the received creed and worship of Christendom; and
that, without such mission, their work was but a sacrilege, such
as God punished of old by sudden vengeance on those who pre-
tended to assume the priesthood of His worsliip. Mr. (Ertel
became a Catholic, and after being received into the Church, has
devoted himself 1o editing a German Catholic paper.

Academies for the instruction of girls were also formed by the
Sisters of Charity, the first having been opened in 1830, during
the absence of Bishop Dubois in Europe. Another very flour-
ishing one was afterwards established in the Seventh Ward, and,
under the able direction of Sister William Anna, trained many
young Catholic ladies in useful learning and accomplishments,
adorned by the practice of religion. This school, at a later date,
gave rise to the Academy of Mount St. Vincent, at Harlem,
which is now the mother-house of the order, as founded by
Mrs. Seton.

Among the clergymen who joined the diocese of New York
during the episcopate of Bishop Dubois, we cannot omit to men-
tion the Rev. Charles C. Pise, so well known by his popular
writings in prose and verse, and as an accomplished scholar and
preacher. Before coming to New York, he had published a suc-
cinct Church History, and subsequently wrote the Lives of St.
Ignatius and his companions, several volumes of poems, tales, a
work ou the Doctrines of the Church, and several minor trea-
tises. In fact, he first endeavored to give the young Catholics of
America reading which would be attractive and innocent. Like
many good works, this at first found many assailants, and, borne
down by the fierce criticism of Catholic reviewers, the publisher

1,-1

•i i

408

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

of these popular Catholic works was compelled to stop the pub-
lication. All, however, now admit the necessity of a literature of
this kind, of which Dr. Pise must be considered the founder.*

About 1837, Bishop Dubois began to sink under the labors
which the increase of his diocese imposed upon him. He so-
licited a coadjutor, and the Rev. John Hughes, of St. John's Church,
Philadelphia, was appointed by the Holy See, Bishop of Basile-
opolis in partibus infidelium, and Coadjutor of the Bishop of New
York. At this time, the diocese comprised seven churches in the
city of New York, eleven in other parts of the State, and four in
New Jersey, attended in all by fifty clergymen, who, besides, vis-
ited regularly twelve other stations where churches had not been
erected ; the college at Nyack had been abandoned, and the
schools of the Sisters of Charity at New York and Albany were
the only academies, and their orphan asylums, in the same cities,
and at Brooklyn and Utica, the only eleemosynary institutions.

Such was the result of the administration of Bishop Dubois,
whose zeal, ever checked or poorly seconded, had not been able
to endow his diocese with those establishments which its necessi-
ties imperatively called for. Of the clergy whom he had gath-
ered around him, it was, however, consoling to think, that sixteen
had been ordained by his own hands.f

About a fortnight after the appointment of his coadjutor, the
venerable bishop, whose health had been gradually failing, was
attacked by paralysis, and never finally recovered. The duties
of his office devolved on Bishop Hughes, who was in the follow-
ing year appointed administrator of the diocese. Bishop Dubois
prepared for his last moments with all the calmness and tranquil
piety which had characterized him in life, taking the deepest in-
terest in the spiritual welfare of the flock to which he had been

* For a notice of Dr. Pise and his works, you may consult Duyckinck's
Cyclopaedia of American Literature — in vain !
+ Catholic Almanac for 1838, p. 83.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

409

0 stop the pub-
)f a literature of
lie founder.*
uder the labors

1 him. He so-
. John's Church,
ishop of Basile-
I Bishop of New
churches in the
;ate, and four in
ho, besides, vis-
es had not been
doned, and the
ad Albany were

the same cities,
ly institutions.
I Bishop Dubois,
[I not been able
hich its necessi-
n he had gath-

nk, that sixteen

coadjutor, the

ly failing, was

. The duties

in the follow-

Bishop Dubois

ss and tranquil

,he deepest in-

ih he had been

suit Duyckinck's

80 long attached. He expired at his residence, on Tuesday, the
20th of December, 1842, without a struggle and without a sigh,
with a prayer on his lips, and a sweet hope of heavenly rest in
his heart. At his own humble request, he was interred under
the pavement before the main door of his cathedral.

Bishop Dubois can never be forgotten in the annals of the
American Church : whether we regard him in the outset of his
career as the young missionary, of iron constitution, teaching for
his support and evangelizing Norfolk and Richmond ; or as pas-
tor at Frederick, visiting the vast district committed to liis care,
when, to use the words of the venerable clergyman who pro-
nounced his funeral discourse, "he was the pastor of all Western
Maryland and Virginia, and for some time the only Catholic
priest between the city of Baltimore and the city of St. Louis ;"
or, at a later date, erecting the college at the Mount, and, by di-
recting Mrs. Seton, taking so active a part in the good accom-
plished by the Sisters of Charity. As bishop, he did not forget
his early predilection, and was ever more assiduous in catechising
the young than in preaching to the grown. His career as a
bishop we have seen one of unostentatious, but active and un-
tiring benevolence. His visitations of his diocese Avere frequent,
and, though ever anxious for the preservation of ecclesiastical
discipline, he was a kind father to his clergy, a friend and bene-
factor to the poor, a pastor full of solicitude to supply abundantly
the spiritual wants of his extensive diocese.*

His worth was not unrecognized. Immediately after his death,
the faculty and students of Mount St. Mary's convened, and re-
solved to erect a monument at the mountain to " the founder of
Mount St. Mary's College and Seminary, and the father of the
Institution of Sisters of Charity in this country."

* Eov. John M'Caffrey, Discourse on the Right Eev. John Dubois, D. D.,
Gettysburg, 1843. Bishop Bayley, Brief Sketch, pp. 108, 104. Catholic Al-
manac, 1845, p. 48. White, Life of Mrs. Seton, 446.

^ r i

410

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

CHAPTER XXV.

1 1

DIOCESE OF NEW YORK — (1888-1856).

Bight Rev. John Hughes, Condjutor and tlien Bishop of New York— He o\xrthrov8
trusteeism — The school question— Bishop Hughes before the Common ('(-u/i -il— St.
John's College— The Ladies of the Sacred Heart and Madame Gnllitzin— The Re-
demptorists — The Traciarian niuvenient, and the conversions resulting from it —
The French Chnrcli and the Bishop of Nancy— Appointment of Right Rev. John
McCloskey as Coadjutor— The Sisters of Mercy— Reorganization of the Sisters of
Charity— Division of the diocese— Brothers of the Christian Schools— Progress of
Catholicity in other parts of the diocese— New York erected into an archiepiscopal
See— Erection of the Sees of Brooklyn and Newark— First Provincial Council of New
York— The Church Property Bill and the discussion with Senator Brooks— Ret-
rospect.

No prelate of the Church in the United Statos has been more
widely known, or attracted a greater share of the public atten-
tion, than the Right Rev. John Hughes, who, under the title of
Bishop of Basileopolis, became, in 1838, the Coadjutor of the
Diocese of New York. Possessing in an eminent degree the
talent of discerning the public mind, and its constant fluctua-
tions, able and eloquent as an orator and controversialist, he
will rank among the statesmen no less than among the prelates
of America. Born in Ireland, of a family originally Welsh, but
long identified with the Scoto-Irish, he was the son of a farmer
of moderate but comfortable means, and owed his early training
to the care of a kind and careful mother, to whom he thus beau-
tifully alludes in his letter to General Cass : " The first person
whose acquaintance I made on this earth was a woman. Her
pretensions were humble, but to me she was a gi'eat lady — nay,
a very queen and empress. She was more — she was my earliest
friend ; my visible, palpable guardian-angel. If she smiled ap-

■H.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

411

)rk— He o\ ■rtrthroM's
)mmon ('(.u/i '11 — St.
GftUitzin— The Re-
resulting from it—
of Right Rev. John
on of the Sisters of
Ichools— Progress of
ito an archieplscopal
nclal Council of New
snator Brooks— Ret-

has been more
public atten-
er the title of
)adjutor of the
nt degree the
nstant fluctua-
roversiaHst, he
ng the prelates
illy Welsh, but
on of a farmer
early training
he thus beau-
le first person
woman. Her
at lady — nay,
as my earliest
,e smiled ap-

proval on mo, it was as a ray from Paradise sIicmI on my liciit.
If she frowned disapproval, it seemed like a partial or lolal eclipse
of the sun."*

Without friend, protector, or patron, he came to the United
States in 1817, and proceeded to Mount St. Mary's, in order to
enter as a seminarian. No vacancy existed, and for a time lio
pursued his studies privately ; but soon obtained entrance, Jiud
for seven or eight years prosecuted his studies and taught the
various classes committed to his care. Ordained priest, he was
sent to Philadelphia, and here, for eleven years, won general re-
spect and esteem by his zealous discharge of the duties of a
Christian pastor. Ho erected St. John's Church to meet the in-
creasing wants of the Catholic public, and established a perma-
nent reputation as a controversialist by his discussions with the
Rev. John Breckenridge, a Presbyterian clergyman, who had
publicly challenged the Catholics to discuss the great question
of religion with him. The controversy was at first carried on
in writing, on the subject, " Is the Protestant religion the religion
of Christ ?" and Mr. Breckenridge, after some months, defeated
at every step, virtually abandoned the field. He subsequently
returned to the attack, and insisted on an oral discussion. Again
did the Rev. Mr. Hughes meet the chajnpion of I'rotestantism,
on the question, " Is the Roman Catholic religion, in any or in
all its principles or doctrines, inimical to civil or religious liber-
ty ?" and again, by the common consent of all impartial judges,
most signally triumphed over his adversary, upholding Uie truth
of history, showing not only that the Catholic Church had never
sanctioned persecution, much less made it a part of her creed,
but that Protestantism I'ose by rapine and persecution, and only
by violence had been able to maintain its existence.f

* Reply to General Cass, p. 15.

t Oral Discussion on the Roman Catholic Religion,

Philadelphia, 1886.

412

THE CATHOLIC CHIMICH

Tlu'so (lisciisHioiiH wcni not tVuitUsss : lh»>y otiiibliMl tlie Rev.
Mr. lluglu's to gain (o tlm Church itiniiy rrolcstaiit raruincs, utid
ttiiK^ng other persons of eniiiiciiec, |)r. \V. K. Ilonu-r, u phy^i'
eiuii whosti cniiiu'iit rcpulalioii tor inotlical seii-iuie was hy no
ineims eontined to his native eountry, an<l whose anatonjieal
works enjoy the hi«;hest reputation.

Tlie a})i)ointniunt of J»r. Hughes us Coadjutor of New York
was a new era for Catholicity in that extensive diocese. lie
t-anie at a moment whi'U trustijcism was in open array against
the P^piscopal authority, and ho resolved to overthrow a sys-
tem so much at variance with the discipline of the ("hurch, and
■which had in the United States proved so prejudicial to religion.
As the trustees claimed to lioM the treasury and so rule the
house of (Jod, he at once appealed to the faithtul, whom the
trustees could in no sense be said to represent ; and advised the
people to give their collection, not to their rebellious trustees, but
to their duly appointed pastors, whoso support wjis by the laws
of the Church obligatory upon them. Following up the ground
taken in the ]>astoral address of ]>ishop Dubois to the congrega-
tion of his Cathedral, in February, 1838, he presided at a meet-
ing, and so cleaily develoi)ed the real state of the question, that
it was determined that the whole system should in future be
made to conform to the canon law. Another cause soon led to
the complete overthrow of trustceism : this was the extravagance
of the expenditure of the Church moneys by the boards of trus-
tees, and the bankruptcy of five boards of as many churches in
the city of New York, out of eiglit, the whole number then ex-
isting. Of these, tliat of St. Peter's, in Barclay-street, owed
debts amounting to nearly one hundred and fifty thousand dol-
lars. The churches were all assigned or sold by the sheriff, and
passed into the hands of Bishop Hughes, who purchased them in
his own right, to save them from desecration. The State gov-
ernment, which had viewed with satisfaction this sad state of

IN TIIK UNITED STATEB.

413

:il.li'(l the Ivi'V.
Hit families, unci
onier, u pliy^'i'
iico wiiH by i»o
loau nualoniical

r of New York
^0 diot'osc!. Ho
•II army against
ivorthrow a sys-
tho (Church, and
licial to religion,
and so rule tlio
thful, whom tho
and advised tho
ions trustees, but
A as by the laws
g up the ground
to the congrega-
sided at a meet-
lie question, that
lid in future be
[luse soon led to
he extravagance
li boards of trus-
nny churches in
Lumber then ex-
|lay-street, owed
;y thousand dol-
the sheriff, and
:chascd them in
The State gov-
liis sad state of

Catholin affair^, producivl by (he operation of th(! act of nligious
incorporation, seems to have regretted that the Itishop should
Inive been able to secure the buildings again for Catholic wor-
ship, and, as wo shall see, passed one of the most (.extraordinary
nets which can be found on the statute-books of any civilized
country; an act which pretendc^d to take from the bishoj) prop-
erty wliich ho liail purchased, and restore; it, without compensa-
tion, to tho very boaids of tr»ist<H'S whost! legal title had been
legally sold by operation of law !*

Soon after his consecration, Bisliop Huglies resolved to visit
Europe, and obtain the succor which religion needed in tho dio-
cese to which he had been appointed. For this purpose, in tho
course of the year IHUQ he visited France, Austria, and Italy,
everywhere impressing those whom ho met with his rare ability.
Having obtained nmch momentaiy aid and formed his plans for
the religious institutions of his diocese, ho returned without de-
lay to his post. There a (juestion of great importance had at
last come before tho public, and one in whicli the bishop could
not be a mere spectator. New York liad its free schools, sus-
tained by the State, and its public schools under tho control of a
private society, but receiving public moneys to carry on their
establishments. Not one of these schools was smdi that a Cath-
olic parent could conscientiously send a child to it. In all, the
reading of the mutilated version of the Scriptures, termed the
King James's Bible, was obligatory, and it was expounded by-
Protestant teachers ; in all, the school-books contained slanders,
insults, and absurdities in regard to Catholics and their religion ;
and such schools, supported by public money, were tho oidy free
schools in which tho poorer Catholics could obtain the rudi-
ments of knowledge. Had Protestantism been the established

* Sec his Letter on the moral causes that have produced the evil spirit ot
tho times, p. 10,

414

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

ft f

'Hi
ih i'

I I

religion of the State of New York, this would have been en-
durable ; but, as the law established no religion. Catholics pro-
tested. So flagrant did the wrong appear, that a Senator of the
State inserted an article in a Catholic paper mooting the ques-
tion of a regulation of the schools so as to make them free to all.
The Catholics began to hold meetings, formed an association, and
devised plans for obtaining relief; the governor of the State called
attention to the matter in his message, but the New York Com-
mon Council rejected the memorial of the Catholics. It became
the great question of the day.

Such was the condition of affairs when Bishop Hughes return-
ed to his See. To prevent the matter from being made a politi-
cal hobby, he resolved to attend the meetings, and, exercising his
right as a citizen, did so. " In these meetings," we quote his
own language, " the question was discussed — the imperfect edu-
cation afforded by our own charity schools — the vast number
wdio could not be received at them — and would not be sent to the
schools of the Public School Society, on account of the strong
anti-Catholic tendencies which they manifested through -the me-
dium of objectionable books, prejudiced teachei's, and sectarian
influences."*

The most important of these meetings was held on the 20th of
July, 1840 ; the Very Rev. Dr. Power presided, and the bishop
for the first time addressed the Catholics, and advised careful but
firm action. On the 10th of August an address of the Roman
Catholics to their fellow-citizens appeared, to which the Public
School Society issued a reply. Then, in a general meeting, the
Catholics, on the 21st of September, adopted a petition to the
Common Council for relief, which, after exposing the sectarian
character of the Public Schools, and the fact that Catholics had

* Letter on the moral causea that have produced the evil spirit of the
iiraes, p. 8.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

415

have been en-
Catholics pro-
Senator of the
oting the ques-
lem free to all.
issociation, and
:he State called
3W York Com-
3s. It became

lughes return-
made a politi-
exercising his
we quote his
imperfect edu-
) vast number
. be sent to the
of the strong
'ough -the me-
|and sectarian

In the 20th of

the bishop

\d careful but

the Roman

the Public

[meeting, the

:ition to the

he sectarian

atholics had

spirit of tlio

boen compelled to erect schools of their own, which they offered
to submit to the conditions of the law with regard to religious
teaching, concluded thus : " Your petitioners, therefore, pray that
your honorable body will be pleased to designate as among the
schools entitled to participate in the Common School fund, upon
complying with the requirements of the law, or for such other
relief as to your honorable body shall seem meet," St. Patrick's,
and six other schools which they named.

To this petition two remonstrances were made — one by the
trustees of the Public School Society, and the other by a com-
mittee appointed by the pastors of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. On the 29th of October, 1840, the parties appeared
before the Common Council. On the side of the Catholic peti-
tionei's, the bishop set forth their claims and answered the re-
monstrances ; the Public School Society had employed two emi-
nent lawyers, Theodore Sedgwick, Esq., and Hiram Ketchum,
who now answered the arguments of the bishop : the former
by an historical view of our Common Schools, and an attempt
to show that the Public School Society, being good and suffi-
cient, was entitled to a monopoly in the matter of public in-
struction ; the latter wrecked his reputation as an advocate by
personal attacks on the bishop, whom he could style only " the
mitred gentleman," and by completely ignoring the petition, and
representing it as an attempt >! the Catholics to deprive Prot-
estants of the Bible. These were followed, on subsequent even-
ings, by Rev. Drs. Bond, Bangs, and Reese, of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, Rev. Dr. Knox, of the Reformed Dutch
Church, and the Rev. Dr. Spring, of the Brick Presbyterian
Church, each of whom, in turn, seemed to suppose that the
Catholic religion was the subject of discussion, and commented
on its tenets with all the zeal of partisans. "When all had ended,
the bishop rose to reply. Summing up the real question, so
much lost sight of, he said : " It is the glory of this country, that

il i

f^ !

i 1

)

' 1

1 •
i 1,

ii'

>: ; 1

416

THE CATHOLIC CIIUKCH

when it is found that a wroncj exists, thorc is a power, an irre-
sistible power, to correct tlie wrong. They have represented iw
as contendincj to brinrj the Catliolic Scriptures into the Public
Schools. This is not true. They have represented us as ene-
mies to the l*rotestant Scriptures, ' without note or comment ;'
and on this subject I know not whether their intention was to
make an impression on your honorable body, or to elicit a sym-
pathetic echo elsewhere ; but whatever their object was, they
have represented that even here Catholics have not concealeu
their enmity to the Scriptures. Now, if I had asked this hon-
orable board to exclude the I'rotestant Scriptures from tlio
schools, then there might have been some coloring for the cur-
rent calumny. But I have not done so. I say — Gentlemen of
every denomination, keep the Scriptures you reverence, but do
not force on me that which my conscience tells me is wrong. I
may be wrong, as you may be ; and, as you exercise your judg-
ment, be pleased to allow the same privilege to a fellow-being
who must appear before our common God, and answer for the
exercise of it. I wish to do nothing like what is charged upon
me ; that is not the purpose for which we petition this honor-
able board in the name of the community to which I belong.
I appear here for other objects ; and if our petition be granted,
our schools may be placed under the supervision of the public;
authorities, or even of commissioners to be appointed by the
Public School Society ; they may be put under the same super-
vision as the existing schools, to see that none of those phan-
toms, nor any grounds for those suspicions, which are as unchari-
table as unfounded, can have existence in reality. There is,
then, but one simple question — Will you compel us to pay a tax
from which we can receive no benefit, and to frequent schools
which injure and destroy our religious rights in the minds of our
children, and of which in our consciences we cannot appro\ e ?

IN THE UNITED STATES.

417

)ower, an wre-
oprosoiited us
to the Public
;ed lis as ene-
or comiTient;'
cntion was to
t elicit a sym-
ect was, thev
not concealeu
sked this hon-
res from the
ig for the cur-
Gentlemen of
?rcnce. but do
3 is Avrong. I
;ise yonr judg-
i fellow-being
iswor for the
sharged upon
in this honor-
ich I belong.
|n be granted,
>f the public
ntcd by tho
same super-
those phan-
as nnchari-
There is,
Ito pay a tax
iient schools
blinds of our
>t appro\ e ?

1'hat is tho simple question."* lie then, in a most able speech,
answered all his opponents, legal and clerical, and showed con-
vincingly that not a solitary principle laid down by him, or laid
down in the petition, had been refuted by them, and that there-
fore there must be something powerful in the j)lain, unsophisti-
cated, simple statement of the petition, when all the reasoning
brought against it had left it just where it was before.

Simple as the petition of tlie Catholics was — th; I their schools
conforming to the law should enjoy n share in the public moneys
monopolized by the Public School Society, a Protestant institu-
tion which ignored the law — the question was misstated in tho
hall of the Common Council, and has been misrepresented a
thousand times. The fact that the Catholics proposed to sub-
ject their schools to State supervision, and conform the teac^hing
to the State requirements, is perpetually overlooked, and the
charge that Catholics asked the exclusion of the Bible repeated
in a thousand shapes. Tlie question was no longer before the
tribunal of justice; it had been evoked before that of prejudice
— what wonder that the petition of the Catholics was reje(;ted?
But the blow had be«n struck : the fact was clear that the
Catholic bishop had met triumphantly the best array of legal
and clerical talent in the city, and though the Common Council
might decide against him, the whole country beheld him with
admiration.f

Tlie Catholics had anticipated the result ; but the step taken
was necessary before submitting the case to the Legislature of
the State. In due time petitions were forwarded, signed by a
large number of citizens. Catholics and Protestants, natives as
well as foreigners. The prayer of this petition Avas received fa-
vorably, because it seemed to be but reasonable and just. A

* Report, 1 , 4.

t Bayley, Sketch of the CaUoHc Church, 111.
18*

:i !

li !

i 41;

' .1

418

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

l)ill was drawn up wliicli passed the Assembly, but at llic close
of tlic session was lost, in the other house ! All now looked for-
ward to the next Legislature ; and no calumny that ingenuity
could deviso was left untried to prejudice the popular mind
against the Catholics, and to lead to a resistance to any chango
in the law. As the election drew nigh, the opponents of five
education called on voters to require the candidates of both po-
litical parties to pledge themselves to refuse the prayer of the
petitioners. The candidates of the Whig party did so; the
candidates of the Democratic party, to which the great mass of
the Catholics belonged, did so ; and the Catholics saw an elec-
tion approach, at Avhicli every candidate, without waiting for a
discussion in the legislative halls, had decided to deny them jus-
tice. No alternative was left. Those who asked schools free from
sectarian bias — where teachers should not be allowed to attack
any creed, where no school-books should slur on any church,
where neither Protestant nor Catholic Bible shoidd be forced on
those who disowned it — resolved to adopt a new and indepen-
dent ticket. As the bishop well remarked, "they would deserve
the injustice and degradation of which tUey complained, if they
voted for judges publicly pledged beforehand to pass sentence
against them."*

This step, totally unexpected by the Democratic party, which
counted the Catholics as its willing slaves, left them in a minor-
ity, and they were totally defeated. The election showed the
numerical force of the Catholics, and the Whigs now sought to
gain, the Democrats to recall them. All the politicians who had
scorned the petitions of the Catholics became suddenly sensible
that the old school law was very defective, and before long a
new act was passed, erecting ward-schools on a far more equita-

* See the whole matter in the important and interesting debate on the
claim of the Catholica tea portion of the Common School Fund, New York,
1840.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

419

t al tlic clope

)w looked for-

liat ingenuity

popular inirid

0 any change

•nents of free

!s of botli po-

)raycr of the

did so ; the

l^reat mass of

saw an elcc-

ivaiting for a

2ny them jus-

ools free from

^'ed to attack

any churcli,

be forced on

md indepcn-

onld deserve

ined, if they

ss sentence

;irty, which
in a minor-
Ishowed tlie
[v sought to
ins who had
nly sensible
fore Ions: a
lore equita-

lebate on the
New York,

ble basis. "Experience has since shown," says Bishop Bayley,
" that the new system, though administered with as much fair-
ness and impartiality as could be expected under the circum-
stances, is one which, as excluding all religious instruction, is
most fatal to the morals and religious principles of our children,
and makes it evident that our only resource is to establish
schools of our own, where sound religious knowledge shall be
imparted at the same time with secular instruction."

We have seen in Philadelphia how this question, distorted
and misrepresented, was made by fanatics the means of organiz-
ing a new political party, which, under the name of Native
Americans, for a time carried the elections, and left as monu-
ments of its history, riots, rebellion, murder, devastation, and
sacrilege. Then and since, whenever it has been the policy of
the fanatic to fan the flame of ignorant bigotry, the couduct of
the bishop has been made the subject of misrepresentation and
accusation. In his letter to the Hon. James Harper, Native
American mayor of the city in 1844, he says, and defies contra-
diction : " I have never asked or wished that any denomination
should be deprived of the Bible, or such version o the Bible as
that denomination conscientiously approved in < nr common
schools. I have never requested or authorized the blackening of
the public school books in the city of New York." Charged
with intriguing with political parties, he denied it absolutely,
and says : " When no alternative was left to the people, long de-
prived of the rights of education, but to vote for candidates
bound by pledges to deny them justice and even refuse them a
hearing, and this on the very eve of the election, I urged thero
with all the powers of n.y mind and heart to repel the disgust-
ing indignity of this stratagem. I told them to cut their way
through this circle of fire, with which the opponents of the
rights of education narrow-mindedly and ungenerously sur-
rounded them. I told them that they would be signing and

420

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

■ U'

I •)

sealing the' own degradation if they voted for men pledged to
refuse thr >n even the chance of justice. But then no party — no
individual of any parly — had any thing to do with the prompt-
ing of this advice but myself. It sprang from my own innate
sense of duty — my own conception of the rights of a constituency
in a free government."

Such is in brief the history of the famous School Question in
New York — a question simple in itself, but which Providence
permitted to be the instrument of evoking to life and strength
the dormant hatred of Catholicity slumbering in the bosom of
American Protestantism. The words of fieedom and equality
had been repeated till they were actually supposed to exist ; but
when Catholics sought to make them realities, they found that
they were mere conventional symbols, names of political myths.

The bishop's labors for education were mJt limited to this.
Like his venerable prelate, he sought to erect a college, and ad-
vanced rapidly the arrangements of St. John's College at Ford-
ham, which be had purchased in 1839. To his great consolation
and the joy of the Catholics of his diocese, it opened on the 24th
of June, 1841, the Rev. John M'Closkey, the present Bishop of
Albany, a graduate of Mount St. Mary's, and universally esteemed
for his talents, prudence, and amiableness, being the first presi-
dent. Under his administration it soon acquired a name which
it has ever preserved. He was soon, however, succeeded by the
able and learned Dr. Ambrose Manahan, one of the most emi-
nent clergymen in the United States, and then by the Rev. John
Harley, a man peculiarly fitted for his post, who introduced an
admirable system of study and discipline, and won in a singular
degree the affection and esteem of the pupils.

The same year that beheld the opening of this new college
saw rise beside it a beautiful building for the theological sem
nary of the diocese — another fruit of the zealous labors of tL
bishop. This institution has ever since continued in a flourishing

IN THE UNITED STATES.

421

pledged to
party — no
10 prompt-
)wn innate
nstituency

(uestion in

^'rovidence

1 strength

bosom of

;l equality

exist; but

ound that

al mytlis.

;d to this.

e, and ad-

3 at Ford-

)nsolation

the 24th

Bishop of

esteemed

rst pvesi-

10 which

d by the

ost emi-

ev. John

need an

singular

college
|al sem
of tl
^■ishing

condition, having in 1845, when the college, as we shall sec,
passed into the hands of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, re-
ceived professors of that celebrated Order, under whose zealous
care nearly fifty priests have been formed to the ecclesiastical
state.

The introduction of a religious Order capable of giving the
highest order of educati u to young Catholic maidens was an-
other object of the zealous prelate, and he succeeded in obtaining
from the Ladies of the Sacred Heart a colony of their Order.
The Sisters selected by the Mother-general of the Order arrived
in 1841, and, founding a house of their Order, immediately
opened an academy at the corner of Houston and Mulberry
streets, in the building now occupied by the Sisters of Mercy.
Of the origin of this society we have spoken elsewhere, as well
as of their rules and system of education, both based on the ad-
mirable discipline of the Society of Jesus. The Superior of the
community who founded the convent in New York — now be-
come the mother house of the province, or vicariate of the North
— was Madame Elizabeth Gallitzin, whose history wo cannot but
insert. Born in Russia, of that princely family which had given
the American Church one apostle, she was brought up in the
Greek Church, although her mother had secretly embraced the
Catholic faith — a circumstance of which she was not aware imtil
her fifteenth birthday. On the morning of that day, her mother
having called her into her private apartment, disclosed to her the
secret of he: religion. The communication deeply aflflicted the
young Elizabeth, and, withdrawing from her mother's presence,
she wept bitterly at what she considered a heinous crime. After
some time she began to reflect upon the causes that had led to
her mother's change, and unable to discover any other, she con-
cluded it must have been owing to the influence of the Jesuits,
several of whom visited the house. Filled with the deepest
anxiety, she said to herself, " If these h3rpocrites have so seduced

«/!'■

' li

'f I

fl;

i22

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

my excellent and prudent mother, what effect will not their influ-
ence have on me !" and she recalled to mind with terror that one
was actually her preceptor in the Italian tongue. She sought
with earnestness a protection against the dangers by which she
felt herself surrounded, and a sudden thought flashing upon her
mind, she resolved to write a solemn oath never to change her
religion, and to recite it daily. Having done this she Wfis more
composed, and retiring to rest, slept, as she herself expresses it,
" better than usual." From this time the tone of her existence
seemed changed. Her mother's fearful secret, the discovery of
which involved exile or death, hung heavily upon her mind, and
though during the daytime she appeared gay, at night she
watered her couch with tears. Deference for her mother and
fear of wounding feelings sacred in her eyes, however mistaken
and criminal she m^ght consider them, imposed likewise a re-
straint upon her intercourse with their Jesuit visitors, and par-
ticularly her preceptor. The latter was in the habit of presenting
her pictures, rosaries, etc., and though her very soul loathed
these emblems of Catholic faith, yet through affection for her
mother she accepted them.

To a mind like hers, this appearance of deceit, however justi-
fiable in its motives, was intolerable. She finally resolved to re-
turn her preceptor his gifts, with a note explaining her reasons,
and she did so, after submitting the note to her mother, for not-
withstanding her repugnance, she never forgot the respect due
her parent.

Some months after, her Italian preceptor having died, her
mother requested her to attend the funeral service. Elizabeth
consented, though unwillingly. As she entered the church she
seemed to hear an interior voice say, " You hate the Catholics,
but you will one day be a Catholic yourself." This thought so
distressed her that she wept bitterly. Still the dictates of her
naturally noble heart soon reminded her that it was wrong to

ft'

IN THE T..,ifED STATES.

423

lieir influ-
: that one
le sought
k^hich she
upon her
ange her
was more
Dresses it,
existence
icovery of
nind, and
light she
)thei' and
mistaken
nse a re-
and pav-
>resenting
I loathed
for her

vcr justi-
'ed to re-
reasons,
for not-
■)ect due

^ied, her
Elizabeth
irch she
latholics,
[ught bo
of her
Irong to

indulge feelings of hatred against any one. Conscience re-
proached her for her dislike of Catholics and Jesuits, and falling
on her knees, she poured forth fervent prayers for them.

Another incident painful to her heart soon occurred. One of
her near relatives became a Catholic. Elizabeth was much
grieved, but with characteristic generosity forbore to censure in
any manner her cousin's conduct. "She tliinks her course
right," said she, "and therefore I commend her for acting as she
has done." This lady, in a conversation with the princess, pressed
her to read some books whose titles she mentioned, and even
presented her with one, offering to send her the others whenever
she should desire them. Elizabeth took the book through cour-
tesy, but rephed to the offer, that being thoroughly convinced of
the truth of her religion, she did not anticipate having any need
of information concerning other creeds. These were her words
in the morning; the ensuing night beheld her a Catholic in
heart and truth.

Returning home, for the first time she hesitated to renew her
oath — that oath which for twelve months no weariness could in-
duce her to omit. A feeling of its rashness came over her ; she
paused ere she knelt to repeat the solemn words — a powerful
grace was busy in her heart. She laid tiie paper aside and re-
tired to rest. Tumultuous and various thoughts agitated her ;
she could not sleep, and finally rising from her restless couch,
her eyes fell upon the book presented her in the morning. She
opened it ; nor had she read many pages before the full light of
truth beamed upon her — she fell upon her knees — she was a
Catholic.

But arguments were necessary to meet the objections that
would be urged against her faith. She hastily wrote the follow-
ing words to her cousin : " Send me your books — pray for me,
and hope." Some hours after she was summoned to meet her
mother, to whom she had yet to communicate her joyful secret.

' if

1 , 1

ill

•J

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424

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Her full heart was relieved by n flood of tears, amid which she
poured forth to lier rejoicing parent the recital of all that had
passed within her. during that eventful night.

The young princess had received from God a favor, great in-
deed, but his mercy in her regard did not stop liere. She heard
the voice of his grace speaking to her heart, and calling lier to
his spouse. Long years, however, elapsed before she could re-
spond, the czar obstinately refusing permission to leave the coun-
try ; and it was not till the age of thirty that she was free. Sho
then immediately oftered herself to the Society of the Sacred
Heart, and was received into the Roman novitiate, where she
edified all by her fervor and exact fidelity to the rules.

After her profession she discharged with great prudence many
liigh oflEices in the Society, and was finally sent by the Superior-
general to America as Visitatrix of the Order. Two special ob-
jects were also intrusted to her zeal and care — the foundation of
the house at New York, and of the Pottowatamee mission. The
former, by the aid and encouragement of the worthy bishop, she
soon accomplished; and having seen the academy frequented by
pupils of the highest order, she set out for the West, and by long
and laborious journeys reached the Pottowatamee village. There
her indomitable energy and the grace of Him to whom she had
devoted her life, and for whose interest she labored, triumphed
over every obstacle. This mission still exists, the work of predi-
lection of the Order.

Madame Gallitzin then proceeded to visit the houses of her
Order in the South, and twice sailed from Paris to New Orleans
in the discharge of her duties, edifying all by her piety, her inex-
haustible charity, and readiness to serve others. Ever forgetful
of herself, she endeajvored in her humility to conceal her great
talents ; but her life, a living picture of religious virtues, only
showed them a clear relief. On arriving at St. Michael's, in
Louisiana, in the latter part of the year 1843, two of the Sisters

IN THE UNITED STATES.

425

were attacked by the yellow fever. Maclaiue Uallitzin, like a
good mother, although actually WMstiiig under a slow fever,
nursed them herself, and yielding to the violence of a cruel dis-
ease, passed on the 8th of December to celebrate with Mary tho
festival of her Immaculate Conception in union with that Sacred
Heart of wliich she had been so devoted au adorer and servant
on earth.

Her singular energy of character, her piety, her singular ability
in conveying instruction, her gay and affable demeanor, as well
as her solid virtues and extraordinary gilts, will long remain en-
graven on the hearts of her Sisters.

Madame Bathilde succeeded her at New York, but it is chiefly
to the present Superior, Madame Aloysia Hardey, that tho com-
munity owci its extension. In 1844, finding the city too con-
fined, they removed to Astoria ; but that locality had its disad-
vantages, and in 184G the ladies were so fortunate as to acquire
the estate of the late Jacob Lorillard, at Manhattanville, Avhere
they established themselves in the ensuing year. Since then
they have founded a new convent in Seventeenth-street, in tho
city itself, and houses at Albany and Buffalo, of whicb we shall
speak hereafter. Their efforts in the cause of education have
been most successful, and the number of candidates shows how
easily vocations to the religious or ecclesiastical state might be
cultivated. Their labors are not confined to the direction of tlie
elegant academies to which wo have thus far alluded; they
almost maintain gratuitous schools, and direct one of the largest
parish schools in the city.

The bishop had thus supplied the two great wants under
which religion had so long suffered ; the other necessities now
invited his attention. The number of French and German Cath-
olics in this city was considerable, and churches were needed for
their special use. Fortunately at this moment arrived one who
relieved the bishop of one of these difficulties, and reared a shrine

426

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

tor the i'x«.'Iiisivc use of the Ciitliolics of Franco in the city of New
York. Tile (Jernuuis were the next objt'ct of the Holitntudo of
the Uishop of Xew Yorl<. We have seen tlie zeal of the Hev.
Mr. J{all('iiior in erootinjif tlie ehurcli of St. Nicliolaa; in 18.10 he
also reared tiiat of St. John tlie Baptist in Thirtieth-street, but
(lilUcultii's ensued, and the bishop sought to obtain a religious
Older who would aceept the mission and devote themselves to
it. lie applied to the Rev. Father Alexander, Superior of the
Kedoinplorists at Baltimore, who, in 1842, sent Father Gabriel
Itunijiler to take ch;irge of the Church of St. Nicholas ; but as
the trustees would not cede the house to the Order, Father
Rumpler purchased lots in Third-street, where the Society erect-
ed a convent and school-*, with a temporary chapel, replaced in
1853 by that noble pile, ihe Church of the Most Holy Redeemer,
in which the oflices of religion are performed with a pomp and
display most consoling to the hearts of the exiled Germans.

The Redemptorists of New York have also erected the Church
of St. Alphonsus for the use of the Germans in the lower part of
the city, and have another house in Buti'alo. Although devoted
in a special manner to the use of the German Catholics, they
were, through the excellent Father Kumpler, instrumental in
bringing into the Church a number of young Episcopalian semi-
narians, whom the Tractarian movement liad led to the study of
Catholicity. Of these, Mr. Arthur Carey was considered the
leader ; and so notorious were his Catholic views, that when
the Protestant Bishop Onderdonk was about to ordain liim, two
of the attendant clergymen protested against any such mockery
as ordaining a minister of their body one who held, that the
decrees^ of the Council of Trent were binding. Mr. Carey was
ordained, but died soon after in ('uba, without having embraced
♦he truth ; for one link had been wanting, and that was devotion
to Mary. Many of the other seminarians were now removed or
retired, but their course was not clear before them. One of

I i

IN THE I'XITEI) STATES.

42T

ty of Now
rusitiulo of
' the Rev.
n 1839 hrt
■street, but
1 religious
nisolvos to
lior of tho
icr Gabriel
as ; but as
ler, Father
L'iety erect-
repluced in
Redeemer,
pomp and
rmans.
lie Churoli
wer part of
li devoted
olics, they
mental in
Han semi-
c study of
idered the
ihat when
him, two
moekery
that the
larey was
mbraced
devotion
lOved or
One of

thorn ap[»lied to Fatlicr Riimi)ler, who, learning in a few mo-
ments his po'sition, sliowed him the danger in which ho stood,
th«! iic<!('ssity of saving liis soul, and the; further necessity of using
etVorts lor that end. Otiuns now sought the liedcmptorist
Father, who, after instructing them in their catechism, received
their abjuration. Anxious to (Kvote themselves to the service
of (jiod in his (Jliurch, several of them sought adnjission into tho
order, and proceeded to Helgium to perform their novitiate.
After their ordiiuition, most, if not all of these Fathers, have re-
turned to the United States; other Americans have entered the
order, and there are a sullicient number to give missions, after
the manner of St. Alphonsus Liguori, in various parts of the
country. The most eminent of these zealous clergymen aro
Fathers I. T. Ileeker, author of " Questions of the Soul," Father
A. Ilewit, translator of the " Life of the Princess Borghcse,"
Father Walworth, son of the last Chancellor of tho State of New
York, the compiler of the ' Mi.-, lon IJook," and Father Deshon,
late a captain in the Univ d States army.* The necessity of such
missions is evident, a.nl th'< calls on the Fathers are more than
they can meet; others will, however, join them, and with the
attention thus calk^l to this means of reviving the faith, the mis-
sions of the Jesuits, Lazarists, and other orders are acquiring a
new develoj>nient.

The young seuiinarians of whom we have spoken ^n. re not the
only converts produced by the celebrated Oxford or Tractariaa
movement. Some account of this is therefore need id here. A
number of the clergymen and professors at Oxford, by the study
of the Fathers, became convinced that the Reformation was a
vatal error, but hoped to show that the Anglican Church was
still a part of tho Church Catholic, and might resume much

* Besides those now Fathers of tlie Order, the talented editor of the Free-
Sinii'B Journal, the llcv. Mr. Wadhams, and others, were among the semi-
narians.

■!•; .

i I .

428

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

that had been, as they would have it, not rejected, but merely
lost sight of in times of trouble. The antiquity of the Mass
was evident, with its doctrine of transubstantiation ; the power
in the Church of forgiving sins no less so. A host of other Cath-
olic dogmas were in the same position. To prepare the public
mind to resume these points, and to cut off Anglicanism from
all connection with the continental reformers, these Oxford di-
vines began, in 1833, to issue a series of tracts, and at the same
time published many devotional works drawn from Catholic
sources, with translations of our ascetical works, and lastly, a
most beautiful series of lives of the early English Saints. At
the same time, they attempted to restore the monastic orders and
Catholic asceticism.

Their publications excited great attention both in England and
this country, from the singular ability of the writere, among
whom were Dr. Pusey, Professor of Hebrew, Keble, Faber, New-
man, Froude, Dalgairns, Oakley, and Ward ; and in all parts a
party arose, which were often styled Puseyites, from the apparent
leader of the movement. The series of tracts went on till the
ninetieth appeared, in 1841, which was an attempt to show that
the Thirty-nine Articles, properly understood, were not at vari-
ance with the decrees of the Council of Trent, and that they
were no bar to a union with Rome. So strange a theory roused
a storm of discussion ; the tracts were stopped, pamphlet after
pamphlet appeared on the question.* In fact, the culminating
point had arrived, and the Ov^ d divines were compelled to
forego their ground, and become Protestants, to remain Angli-
can, or submit to the Holy See, in order to be really Catholic.
In consequence, many clergymen who had embraced their views,
became Catholics in the following years, and in 1845 the Rev.
John Henry Newman, the leader of the movement, and author

* Cardinal Wiseman's Essays, ii. 265.

, '"i-m..

t merely
the Mass
16 power
her Cath-
ie public
ism from
xford di-
the same
Catholic
lastly, a
ints. At
rders and

viand and
s, among
ber, New-
parts a
apparent
n till the
how that
at vari-
hat they
y roused
ilet after
inating
•elled to
Angli-
iatholic.
Ir views,
llie Rev.
author

IN THE UNITED STATES.

429

of the celebrated tract, with the Rev. William George Ward,
author of the " Ideal of a Christian Church," Rev. Frederick
Oakley, Rev. Robert A. Coffin, and Rev. Frederick W. Faber,
authors of many of the Lives of the English Saints, and the last
a most beautiful and accomplished poet, were received into the
Catholic Church. Every mail brought to America the names of
new converts among the clergy, and lists of eminent laymen
who followed their teachers. In this wonderful season of God's
grace and mercy in England, some thousands were Avon to the
faith. As the Metropolitan of Halifax well observed, " Innu-
merable souls, which had long flitted over the deluge of unbelief,
have happily returned to the Ark of rest. The tempest-tost, who
were ' carried about by every wind of doctrine,' have at length
found the divine security of Peter's bark. Egypt has been de-
spoiled, and the People of God are enriched with the most valu-
able treasures. Their great champions and noblest ornaments
we have made captives of faith, and docile members of God's
Holy Church. Their most learned doctors, with all the edifying
simplicity of little children in Christ, have descended from their
chairs, and, seated at His feet, have begun to learn the very rudi-
ments of the science of salvation, in His school of humility and
meekness. And these marvellous changes, these magnificent in-
tellectual triumphs, have been achieved by sound arguments from
reason and Scripture, aided by divine grace ; most certainly not
by bribes, coercion, or any species of physical force. And it is
not alone the poor, the lowly, the simple, the untitled and ob-
scure : no ; but the rich, the noble, the learned, the j ions, the
truly honest, have been converted ; men v/hose great liacrifices
are the surest test of the depth of their convictions, and the un-
impeachable sincerity of their moti\ os."*

With the progress of the moNement in England, that in

* Most Rev. William Walsh, Pastoral for Lent, 1851.

t r

iJ:

r I

■I SI

430

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

America kept pace. The Tractarian ideas found a warm advo-
cate in tlie Right Rev. L. S. Ives, the Protestant Episcopal Bishop
of North Carolina, and more moderate ones in the two Onder-
donks, Bishops respectively of New York and Philadelphia, but
a sturdy opponent in Bishop Mcllvaine, of Ohio, who published
a large octavo work to refute the Catholic ideas put forward by
the Oxford divines. They found a defender in Van Brugli Liv-
ingston, Esq., a layman of the Episcopal Church, who, in a work
on Oxford divinity, maintained their opinions.

In all parts of the country, clergymen began to introduce the
Oxford ideas ; and Bishop Ives founded the Brotherhood of the
Holy Cross, one community of which was at Valley Crucis, a
wild and beautiful spot in Ashe county, in the northwest corner
of North Carolina. Here, in a most neglected part of the coun-
try, a few clergymen and devout laymen observed a community
life, laboring for their own sanctification, find, by preaching and
visits to the surrounding country, endeavoring to contribute to
the salvation of soulg. In other parts, clergymen exhorted to
confession, and endeavored to restore the sacrament of pen-
ance.

Such matters soon excited the attention of the Conventions,
bodies part clerical, part lay, which rule each diocese in the
Episcopal Church of the United States. The Bishop of Phila-
delphia resigned; his brother in New York was tried on a
charge of improper conduct, and suspended from the adminis-
tration of his diocese ; the Bishop of North Carolina was ar-
raigned, but his explanations for a time appeased his opponents,
although the Brotherhood was dissolved.* When, however,
Mr. Newman and the other leaders actually abjured Protestant-
isri, their example was followed in America ; and a still in-
freasing number of Episcopal clergymen have embraced the

* Hecker, Questions of the Soul, 84.

a warm advo-
scopal Bishop
e two Onder-
adelphia, but
bo published
t forward by
I Brugh Liv-
10, in a work

itroduce the
hood of the
'y Crucis, a
west corner
)f the coun-
community
aching and
ntribute to
xhorted to
it of pen-

'iiventicns,
2se in the

of Phila-
■ied on a

adininis-
a was ar-
ppononts,
however,
'otestant-

still in-
iced the

W THE UNITED STATES.

f^"th ; among whom m u ^^^

*« Rov. J. Murray Forbo ' d , ' ^: ""■ ^'"^^'■. of Baltimore •

fordinand White, Eev J v TT J- """^ ^'^<^^ ; the Re,-

^'- Wheaton, al, L xVew W T^':?' ^"''- ^■•- ^"dh'a™ Z'
and lastly, Dr. Ive,, the BisW fxr " "'"J""'' '■" PMadei;hia •'
'-.tatlon was co„;ensate t'h^s ^ ^""'"'^ "''»- 'on^'
'^ '"'justly remarji he "abaL ." ™'""'^^'<»'. ^J "hieh
-'ed - a minister ;f the ZlZtr """''" '" ^'^^^"^
han thirty yea.., a„d as a b tn f P^''''' °'"'^="' f"' "««
-enty and s„„ght late in life dL" '^ ""^ ^"^ -°« ">an
Holy Ca*,„. .,t„,,^j with 1 1^" "' " '">™''" "'» the
P'y peace ,.,„,,i,„; „d The'sir;' '°'""" "'"^'^^^ -™-
•greatness of the saerifioe whM, h "°" °^ '>''^ ^""I-" The

;ell be conceived, and w n ot ;„! 'f. "'"" '« '"^^- "^
abundance of the grace which enabestr *\^""'«'"y ^^r thi
tnumph over every human consMel "' "''°"' ^» "^'^d '<>
D-. Ives proceeded to Rome in I85, '?'."'' '"'•'y P^-^j'^di^o.
■"to the Chnrch, hid at the fet of tt' "^r ,'"""« "^^^ '-'-ved
;f '-episcopal rank. Such ,t the Tr >' ^''*" "'^ '--g-a
'■as g.ven to the Church in T„ > ?'""" ■''■»'™ent, which

"°West of its clerCT and ^ "'' ""^ ^"-erica some of 7h.
mn«!f I, "^'^^'s/j and most talenfpr^ ^f •. ^^®

"lust, however, return to th^ ,. ^°*^^ «^ ^^^ writers* We
progress. '"^ *^^ ^^^^cese of New Fork «r,^ .

-liie German Catholics hnri i
'"eRedemptorists, but theire:: T""^.'^ ^"- ''^ '"-eal of
f?-- *e.r special use. We have^ T '"" "''"'°""'- church
7^. preached in the United sT;'""''^'* 'P^^" of the m,V
o^Naney, Monseigneur d Fo^"^"^ «"='<'=' by the Bis,;

Canad,

Ives, Trials

Miud.

III

Iff

!''■■

I «

432

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

but on his arrival at New York, in February, 1841, the prelate
opened a spiritual retreat in St. Peter's Church, and in a sermon
on the 10th o< ipril, proposed to the French residents of New
York the erection of a church, to be attended by priests of their
own tongue. " In this great city," said he, " where the Irish and
German Catholics liave recoiled from no sacrifice to have their
own churches and priests, how is it that the French, so famous
for the faith of their fathers, alone remain indifferent ? They
are wanting both to the high interest of their salvation, and to
those of their nationality. How, in fact, can this nationality be
long preserved in a foreign land, without the powerful bond of
religion ? This church," he concluded, " is ardently desired by
Bishop Hughes, the holy and talented administrator of the dio-
cese, for which he expects great benefits from it. What a pow-
erful recommendation !"

It is certain that at this time a part of the French residents
of New York lived in great religious indifterence. They might,
indeed, have frequented the various Catholic churches which the
city possessed, 1 ut the dread of an English sermon was a sufficient
pretext for many to remain away from the offices of the Church.
There exists in the city a Protestant church founded by Hugue-
not refugees in 1704, nineteen years after the revocation of the
edict of Nantes. The pastor of this had profited by the apathy
of some of his countrymen, to draw them to his church, where
they were charmed to hear French spoken. He performed their
marriages, baptized their children, so that ere long 'railies ori-
ginally Catholic became insensibly Protestant, in order to remain
French. It was therefore highly necessary to give a church to
a population menaced with a loss of faith. The manly eloquemce
of the Bishop of Nancy had drawn crowds of French around
his pulpit ; his appeal aroused his hearers, and the next day a
large meeting of the French resolved upon the erection of a
church, appointing a committee to receive subscriptions. Th©

( I

?| ; I

the prelate
1 a sermon
ts of New
sts of their
e Irish and
have their
, so famous
nt ? They
on, and to
:ionality be
ul bond of
desired by
of the dio-
hat a pow-

ih residents
'hey might,
I which the
a sufficient
he Church.
ly Hugue-
ion of the
he apathy
eh, where
ed their
Imilies on-
to remain
cliurch to
;loquenice
around
lext day a
Ition of a
Ins. The

■

IX THE UNITED STATF.5.

433

committee soon purchased the site of tlie Church of the Annun-
ciation, a Protestant church then recently destroyed h^r fire, and
on the 11th of October, 1841, the Consul-general of France, Mr.
de la For6t, laid the corner-stone.

The generous JBishop of Nancy did more than support, by his
eloquence, the work which he had inspired : he lent six thou-
sand dollars to aid in constructing the church, and subsequently
bestowed the principal on the diocese. The Association for the
Propagation of the Fuith has several times made important do-
nations, and by these diflferent resources the French church was
erected. Since 1842, the Rev. Annet Lafont has been the zeal-
ous pastor. Ho belongs to the Institute of the Fathers of
Mercy, of which the founder in France was Father Rau-
zan; and it is to be hoped that the church will still be
confided to some zealous congregation, if the will of His
Holiness remove Mr. Lafont from the theatre of his labors.
If this church owes much to the Association for the Propagation
of the Faith, it now contributes to the common work of the mis-
sions, and for several years the French Catholics have responded
to the appeals of the American bishops in favor of the work.
St. Vincent's Church is the organ of communication of some of
the oilier churches also; and we find that in 1855, with the
churches of St. Peter and the Nativity, it remitted over fifteen
hundred dollars to the General Council of the Association.* In
order to make the society known, the Rev. Mr. Lafont delivers
an English sermon on the feast of St. Francis Xavier, which is
attended by thousands, and is always followed by the formation
of new decades. Ere long, we trust that none of the churches
in the large cities will forbear to join in this movement, and, by
forming decades of members of the Association, help to swell

* Proceedings of <-ho Board of Trustees of the Church of St. Vincent de
Paul.

•

434:

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

by their alms a treasury wliicli has given so much to the strug-
gling missions of the United States.

This is not the only work in which the French Church is in-
terested, and which has been established by the zeal of its pastor.
To him New York is indebted for the Brothers of the Christian
Schools, whom he introduced to direct his male parish school,
and who have since extended so rapidly. The church has also a
free school, where eighty girls receive an excellent education,
and the Ladies' Benevolent Association annually raises the funds
necessary for its support. Like the similar association in the
other churches, these ladies also visit the sick and relievo the
poor ; but none equals in zeal and extent of its labors that under
the patronage of the apostle of charity.

The Church of St. Vincent de Paul is also the rendezvous of
the missionaries and sisters of various orders arriving from France,
invited by our bishops, and who are overjoyed to find a priest of
their own land to guide and direct them in a country where all is
new and strange. Father Lafont receives his fellow-missionaries
with the most cordial hospitality, and takes every pain?? to serve
them ; but his rectory is more confined than his generosity, and
this leads us to remark, that, considering the numbers of priests
and sisters who arrive at New York from Ireland, France, Ger-
many, and Italy, on their way to various parts of Canada and
the United States, one of the greatest wants is a good hotel kept
by a Catholic, where French and German snould be spoken.
Such a hotel, approved by the episcopacy of the United States,
might welcome these pious immigrants on their arrival from Eu-
rope, pass their baggage from the Custom-house, give them infor-
mation as to the city and country, and put them on their route
to their different destinations. In this, the modesty of religious
women consecrated to God would be spared many affronts ; their
poverty, heavy expenses ; their confidence, much imposition. As
it is, these good sisters are often abandoned on a wharf, amid an

ji---

-y^...

the strug-

ircli is in-
its pastor.

Christian
sh school,
has also a
education,

the funds
on in the
elievo the
that under

dezvous of
3m France,
a priest of
fhere all is
issiouaries
13 to serve
•osity, and
of priests
mce, Ger-
uada and
lotel kept
! spoken.
;d States,
from Eu-
m infor-
eir route
religious
ts ; their
on. As
mid an

IX THIS UNITED STATES.

435

indifferent or scornful crowd, then bewildered by the vulgar run-
ners, who seek to lead them to ^ow houses, or to sell them spu-
rious tickets. For many, the first hours in America are a mar-
tyrdom, such as they had never painted to themselves in their
most fervent contemplations.

The example set by the French in New York has been imita-
ted in other parts of the State and in Vermont, so that many of
the cities now possess churches, where the Catholic of Franco
may hear iu his own tongue the religious instruction to which he
has been accustomed.

The Bishop ot "^Sevv York, having accomplished so much iov
the well-being of his diocese, issued, on the 28th of July, 1842,
a circular letter convoking a diocesan synod, and after a spiritual
retreat at St. John's College, the clergy of the diocese of New
York met for the first time in synod, at St. Patrick's Cathedral,
on Sunday, the 28th of August. "During the session, twenty-
three decrees were put forwaTd in regard to various matters of
discipline, and the administration of the s; .anents ; many prac-
tices, such as the baptism of infants in private houses, and others
of a similar nature, which had been permitted on account of the
exigencies of the times, were entirely forbidden. The most strict
and salutary regulations were made in regard to secret societies,
and the manner of holding and administering ecclesiastical prop-
e tv" At the close of the synod, the bishop, in a pastoral let-
tei, jommunicated to the people the result of their deliberations
and enforced the regulations. Following this up, he subsequently
issued a series of " Rules for the Administration of Churches with-
out Trustees," under which the property of the Church in the dio-
cese has been most advantageously managed, notwithstanding at-
tempts on the part of the State government to create such confu-
siov. as would lead to its being sacrificed.*

* Bishop Bayley, Sketch of the Catholic Church, 116-18.

436

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

The extent of the diocese made it ahnost impossible for the
uishop to give his supci..iteiideiice to all the rising churches and
institutions. He solicited a coadjutor, and the Rev. John McClos-
key, who had, as we have seen, been the first I'resideut of St.
John's College, and was at the time Pastor of St. Joseph's Church,
was, in 1844, aj)pointed Bishop of Axicrn, and Coadjutor of New
York. Two other of the clergy of New York were at the same
time raised to the episcopal dignity — the Pcv. William Quarter,
long Pastor of St. Mary's, as Bishop of Chicago, and the Rev.
Andrew Byrne, Pastor of St. Andrew's, as Bishop of Little Rock.
The three prelates were consecrated on the 10th of March, 1844,
by the Right Rev. Bishop Hughes, assisted by the Bishops of
Boston and Richmond. Bishop McCloskey at once entered on
his duties, and joined with his diocesan in all his plans for the
good of the faithful. The eminent prelate himself was at this
time assailed by all the fanaticism which the periodical anti-
Catholic fever could evoke ; but w>ile all was in desolation at
Philadelphia, the Bishop of New York, in a letter to the Mayor
'' On the moral causes which had produced the evil spirit of the
times," set the Catholic body, and himself as their pastor, so truly
and faii'ly before the public, that all unanimously condemned their
assailants. A striking proof of the respect entertained for the up-
rightness and ability of the illustrious Archbishop of New York is
found in the fact, that when the war with Mexico began to be
imminent, the Cabinet at Washington actually solicited him to
accept the embassy to Mexico, which the duties of his diocese,
and a feeling that the exigency of the case did not call him to
public life, compelled him to decline. Yet, had he been sent,
there can be but little doubt that his character and position
■would have enabled him so to arrange existing difficulties as to
save both countries from a desolating war. No aspirant to po-
litical honors, he would have been but too happy to sacrifice
private convenience to the public good ; and so far was he from

IN THE UNITED STATES.

437

» for tho
dies and
McClos-
at of St.
, Church,
r of New
the same
Quarter,
the Rev.
tie Rock,
ch, 1844,
i shops of
itered on
19 for the
IS at this
[ical auti-
)lation at
le Mayor
•it of tho
•, so truly
ued their
ir the up-
York is
,n to be
him to
diocese,
him to
en sent,
position
,es as to
it to po-
sacrificb
he from

seekiug, that ho declined a high position, for which ho deemed
so many better fitted than himself.*

The interest which Catholicity takes in the country, and its at-
tachment to it, is evinced in its many benevolent institutions ;
and to refute the calumnies vi its accusers, the bishop added one
more to tho many with which lie had endowed his diocese. In
December, 1845, ho proceeded to Europe, to procure, if possible,
Fathers of the Society of Jesus, Brothers of the Christian Schools,
and Sisters of Mercy. Ir both his ap})lications he was success-
ful, and returning In the spring, prepared a house for the Sisters,
who arrived on the 15th of May, 1840. Tho object for wliicli,
especially, tho devoted pastor wished to secure them, was to es-
tablish a house in which young Catholic women, when out of
employment, might find a temporary refuge, where their inno-
cence would be out of danger. Tho Church had constantly to
mourn over the fall of many who, in these moments, were drawn
to places where, losing virtue, they entered a headlong course of
misery. The House of Protection has been of incalculable ser-
vice, and furnishes not only a shelter to innocence, but enables
families to obtain excellent servants ; for during their stay, the
Sisters instruct them in the various departments for which they
are competent. Nor is this the only work of these good reli-
gious : they conduct a poor y^hool for girls, visit the poor and
sick, and regularly attend ut the New York City Prison, the no-
torious Tombs, where they instruct the unfortunate women de-
tained there, and use every endeavor to draw them to a life of
virtue. Criminals condemned to death are also objects of their
peculiar care, and that care has been rewarded by most extraor-
dinaiy and consoling conversions. The community of Sisters of
Mercy has extended to other cities, as we have before stated.f

* Maury, Statesmen of America, 243.

t Villanis, Cenni iBtorici del Trogreso del Cattolicismo iiegli Stati
Uiiiti, 39.

438

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

The Brothers of the Christian Schools arrived in Oct(jber, but
us Jitlairs were not satisfactorily arrany;(,'d, their establishment was
for a lime abandoned.

In seeking to recall the Society of Jesus to New York, thr
bishop wished especially to confide to their care the College of
St. John, which he had so firmly established, and which the Legis-
lature of the State incorporated on tlio 10th of April, 184G,
chiefly through the exertion of Hon. (Jeorge Folsom, a gcatlemau
of literary acquirements, who, though elected by the Anti-Catho-
lic, would not stoop to any bigoted harassing of the Catholics,
Buch as has disgraced Massachusetts with regard to the College
of the Holy Cross.

The Jesuits of the Province of Paris, who had, in June, 1831,
begun a mission of their order in the diocese of Bardstown, at
the instance of the sainted Bishop Flagot, for many yeais
directed St. Mary's College, in Kentucky, and began a college
and church in Louisville.* DifTiculties, however, compelled them
to withdraw from the diocese; and as, in 1842, other Fathers of
their province, under the jurisdiction of Father Chazelle, the Su-
perior of tlie mission in Kentucky, had founded a house in Mon-
treal, and subsequently others in Upper and Lower Canada, those of
Kentucky sought to approach these, auvl in consequence of the
application of the Right Rev. Bishop Hughes, removed to the
diocese of New York, and assumed the charge of the College of
St. John. Father Chazelle, the Superior since the foundation of
the mission, died at Green Bay in 1845, while visiting the West-
ern missions, and the Rev. Clement Boulanger was appointed
Superior, and remained such till the year 1855.

The direction of the college and of the seminary, which was
confided to their care, did not satisfy the zeal of the Fathers :
they sought to establish a church and college in the city itself;

* Bishop Spalding, Life of Bisliop Flaget, 270, SOL

ber, but
lent was

oik, thf

)11('1^0 of

le Logis-
1, 184G,
iitlcmau
;i-Ciitho-
11 tb olios,
1 Oollego

le, 1831,

stow 11, ;it

tiy years

I college

led tbem

tbers of

tbe Sii-

in Mon-

tbose of

of the

to the

liege of

lation of

West-

oi lit eel

Ich was

itliers :

itself ;

IN THE UNITED STATES.

439

and in IRlT, Father Job n I.urkin liuving acquired a cburcb for-
merly belonging to a Protestant eongrt'gatiun, opened it under
the title of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, and established in
connection with it an n<'ju1(jniy, the nucleus of a future college.
Scarcely, however, liad the whole been successfully organized,
when a conllagration, the result of an accident, laid the building
in ashes. The Fathers iininediately transfeired their academy
to the basement of St. James Church, and subsequently to a
house in the Tliird Areuue ; but having, in IBoO, under Father
John llyan, purchased a site on Fifteenth-street, they began the
erection of a college, and with it of the new Church of St.
Francis Xavier.'* The college was completed in the summer
of 1850, and the Fathers entered it with their pupils in September.
Its plan of study is the same as that at St. John's, embracing a
full college course, with the usual preparatory classes ; and its
pupils are usually about two hundred in number.

Besides these two houses, the Fathers have in the State a
church at West Troy, and another at Buftalo, in all of which
they labor in the various objects of their institute. This mission
numbers in the various dioceses of New York and Canada thirty-
six Fathers and twenty scholastics.

While the Bishop of New York was thus increasing the
means of saving souls, he was almost deprived of the oldest re-
ligious body laboring among his flock. The Sisters of Charity
at Emmetsburg had long opposed the employment of members of
their order in male orphan a^jylums, and finally ordered the Sisters at
New York to resign the care of those which they had so long direct-
ed. In consequence of representations made, the Very Rev. Superior
of the Sisters addressed a circular to those in New York, author-
izing all who chose, to remain, and organize as a separate body.

* Bishop Bayley, Sketch of the Catholic Church on the Island of New
York, p. 123.

"MkU'lAi

440

TIIK CATHOLIC CllUIUM

Oi tilt! fifty Sist«!ra at that tiiiu- in (Iio dioeesc, thirty-oiio remain-
ed; and on tlio 8th of DocenilKr, 1840, tho fi-nst of tho Iinnuic-
ulnti) Con(;e])tion of the Blfssed Vir^^in, the Kij^ht Uev. Bishop
Tlnghr."' (iii.Mtituted tho Sisters t)f Charity in this dioccHO a local
conimuiiity, under the title of Sialers of (charity of St. Vincent
of Paul — the Sisters adherini^ to tho oriufinal constitutions, rules,
dross, and customs of the order, as founded by Mother Scton.
Since the Sisters of Eniniets])urj;; have adopte<l the French dress
and rides, tlioso of New York now represent the Society M
fc^unded by Mother Scton. To add [<< their consolation, tho
Holy Father has ajtproved their organization, and granted iheni
nil the faculties and privileges enjoyed by those at Euunets-
burg.

The mother-house of this body was fixed at Mount St. Vin-
cent, a delightful spot near Harlem, where the Sisters speedily
opened an academy, which has proved most beneficial to tho
city, by the excellent education Avhiidi it affords. Tliey soon after
(in 1849) established in the city itself St. Vincent's Hospital, which
in one year accommodated nearly a thousand patients, lie-
sides these institutions, they direct six orphan asylums, and a
great number of free schools. The missionary establishments in
the States of New York and New Jersey depeniJent on Mount
St. Vincent number twelve ; besides which, there is one in the
province of Nova Scotia.*

Such was the state of Catholicity when, in 184*7, tlie Holy
See, to the great joy of tl}e prelate, divided his extensive dio-
cese, and committed the See of Albany to his able coadjutor,
Bishop McCIoskey, and appointing to the new See of Buffalo the
Rev. John Tinion, of the Congregation of the Missions, who was
consecrated on the I7th of October, 1847, in the Cathedral

1
.a

■>

* Heroines of Charity (Amoriciin cd.), p. 220. Villanii, Conni I'<torici
del Progrcso del Cattolidsmo uegli Stuti Uuiti, p. 40.

l^A

IN THE UNITED aTATES.

441

Holy
;q dio-
idjutor,
lilo tho
lio was
Ihedral

ll>*torici

Cliuivli of St. Piitiick. By this division of the Stuto, tlic Bi^h()p
of New York nituiiietl a*^ his dioceso tho city of New York, with
all tho coimtit'8 south of tho forty-second do^^rec of north hiti-
tudo, and the iiortion of New Jersey previously dependent on his
See. \Miil() tho newly .•ijipointed preliites proceeded to orjLjjuii/cj
the dioceses to which they had been called, ho devoted himself
with Ljreater z<'h1 than ever to the iinproveinent of ihe less oxten-
eivc district coididcd to his care.

We havo seen liow carnestlv he had endeavored to vlant
in his dioceso the Bn^thers of the Christian Schools, and how
unsuccessful his etlbrt proved. Scarcely, however, had the di-
vision of the dioceso been eftected, when ho was consoh 1 by
seeing them permanently introduced by tho zeal and pcr'^ovci-
anco of the Rev. Annet Lafont, wlio, overcoming the obstacles
previously raised, established this excellent order firndy at Now
York. In 1848 four Brothers conunenccd a house near the
Church of St. Vincent of Paul, iti Canal-street, where the\ had
charge of three classes and an attendance of two hundrtnl pupils.
So successfully did the Brothers conduct this school that its
numbers soon augmented, and in spite ()f their scanty accommo-
dations they were obliged to yield to the general wish, and
opened a select boarding-school. Other churcl.c • .'licited mem-
bers to direct their parish-schools, and they soon iiad under their
charge those of the Cathedial, and of St. Mary's, St. Stephen's,
St. Joseph's, and of St. Francis Xavier's, a id even of some in
Brooklyn. Anxious to place them on a iirm footing, the ^lost
Reverend Archbishop encouraged them to open an academy
near the city, to be in a manner the mother-house. The Acad-
emy of the Holy Infancy, near Manhattanville, put in operation
in 1853, owes its existence to his devotedness, and crowns the
labors of the order. Here young lads, not intended for college,
are trained to virtue and the ordinary branches of an English
sourse — the necessity of such an institution being a great want

19*

««««£

442

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

li! I

noar a large commercial city, wliere many parents seek to fit
their sons for commercial and not for pvofijssional pursuits.
Tlie Brothers also direct a select academy in the cit^', and in
all their establishments count nearly two thousand pupils — tho
number of Brothers beino; thirtv-lhree.*"

From the commencement of his administration the zealou*
bishop had constantly multiplied the number of churches around
him, and freeing the older from debt, enabled them to erect
school-houses and meet other parochial wants. In 1850 the city
of New York alone contitined nineteen churches, and the rest of
the diocese forty-seven, being twenty more than the whole State
contained at the time of his appoinlmeut. So important had
New York become that the Holy Father, by his brief of October
3d, 1850, erected it into an archiepiscopal See, with the Sees of
Boston, Hartford, Albany, and Buffalo as sutfragans. The Most
Eeverend Archbishop soon after proceeded to Rome and received
the pallium from the hands of the Holy Father.f

In a short time a new division was proposed, to lighten still
more the burden attached to the See of New York. Part of
New Jersey depended on it and part on the See of Philadelphia.
The Holy See deemed it now foi the interest of religion to unite
the whole State of New Jersey under a bishop whose See was
iixed at Newark, and appointed as tho first bishop, the Rev. James
Roosevelt Bayley, then secretary of the archbishop. The city of
Brooklyn, which had become one of the largest in America, was
also made a See, and conferred on the Very Rev. John Loughlin,
vicar-oreneral of the diocese. The two prehites were consecrated
in St. Patrick's Cathedral, with the Rev. Louis de Goesbriand,
Bishop-elect of Burhngtou, by the Most Rev. Cajetan Bedini, pro-
nuncio of His Hohness, on the 30th of October, 1853.

li"

* Sketch of the Christian Brothers in Catholic Herald, January liS, 1856.
U. S. Catholic Almanac, 1848-1856.
t Bayley, Sketch of the Catholic Church, p. 127.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

443

still

»,art of

phia.

unite

io was

nines

iitv of

was

^lilin,

rated

'iand,

pro-

185G.

As these Sees were also in the province of New York, these
prelates attended in the ensuing year the fii-st Provincial Council
of New York, which was opened on Sunday, the 1st of October,
1854, and closed on the following Sunday. The Fathers of the
Council were the Most Rev. John Hughes, Archbishop of New
York, presiding ; the Rt. Rev. John M'Closkey, BJ?hop of Albany ;
the Rt. Rev. John B. Fitzpatrick, Bishop of Boston ; the Rt. Rev.
John Timon, Bishop of Buffalo ; the Rt. Rev. Bernard O'Reilly,
Bishop of Hartford; the Rt. Rev. John Loughlin, Bishop of
Brooklyn; the Rt. Rev. James R. Barley, Bishop of Newark;
and Rt. Rev. Louis de Goesbriand, Bishop of Burlington. Six
decrees were passed, expressing their devotion to the Holy See,
(}onfirming and renewing the decrees of the Councils of Balti-
more. Besides these they made new and stringent regulations
as to church debts, urged on all the clergy the importance of the
education of the younger portion of their flocks, and regulated
the exercise of the ministry by clergy in other dioceses than
those for which they had obtained fsiculties.*

The meeting of the prelates, moreover, enabled them to de-
cide on many points of discipline of which the enforcement had
been delayed, and it was among other things resolved to enforce
the publication of banns, and to use every effort to establish the
Association for the Propagation of the Faith in their respective
dioceses. The pastoral letters issued by the Fathers of the
Council on the 8th of October, announced this determination,
and after reviewing the position in which Catholics were daily-
assailed with charges of unfaithfulness to their country, urged
them to forbearance and obedience to the laws. " Should any
portion of the community assail you, as if you were unworthy to
be members of this free and enlightened republican government,
let your refutation of their calumnies be less in writings and in

* Concilium Neo Eboraceuse Priraum, p. 20.

]■

"111

444

I'l.

Jill

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

words thau m deeds and actions. Your first duty is supreme
loyalty to God and your holy faith. Your second — subordinate,
but in its own sphere equally supicme — loyalty to your country,
in all her vicissitudes oi' prosperity or adversity, if God should so
permit her to be tried. Next to your country, in this secondary
order, your families, your kindred, your neighbors, your friends
and enemies, your countrymen and all mankind." This letter
also urged on all the necessity of a proper and Catholic educa-
tion of the young, and warned them against the idea so insidi-
ously kept np by the enemies of Catholicity, that every edition of
paper which circulated among Catholics was an organ for which
the Church or its prelates wore responsible.

The decrees of the Council were approved by the Holy See on
the 9th of July, 1855, and the Holy Father, in his letter to the
prelates of the province, commended their zeal, and urged them
to unite in an endeavor to establish an American college or ec-
clesiastical seminary at Rome. " By its means," says the Holy
Father, " young men chosen by you, and sent for the hope of re-
ligion to this city, will grow like tender plants in a nursery, ;in<l
here imbued in piety and learning, will draw uncorrupted doc-
trine from its very source ; and learning the rites and sacred
ceremonies from the custom and manners of that Church which
is the mother and mistress of all, and formed to the best disci-
pline, may on their return to their native land discharge with
success the duties of pastors, preachers, and teachers, edify by an
exemplary life, instruct the ignorant, recall the erring to the
paths of truth and justice, ami by the aid of solid learning, re
fute the fallacies and silence the madness of designing men."

The wish of the Holy Father found an echo in the hearts of
the American Catholics, and one gentleman — the late Nicholas
Devereux, of Utica — proposed that a hundred of the more
wealthy Catholics should, by each subscribing a thousand dol-
lars, raise a fund to begin the college. Tlie others will doubtless

IN THE UNITED STATES.

445

soon present themselves ; if not, a general collection among the
Catholics will easily give the necessary means to give America
its representative college at Rome beside those of England, Ire-
land, France, and Germany.

Soon after the conclusion of the Provincial Council, the Most
Reverend Archbishop resolved to visit Roine in order to be pres-
ent at the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Concep-
tion ; and with the Archbishops of New Orleans and Baltimore,
and the Bishops of Pittsbuig, Buffalo, and Philadelphia, he had
the consolation of taking part in the solemnities of the auspicious
day.

During his absence the enemies of Catholicity, whom a period
of fanaticism had enabled to obtain an influential position in the
Legislature of the State, on a petition of the trustees of St. Louis
Church, Buffiilo, without examination into its truth, without any
discussion of the question by committees, but exulting in a pre-
text which enabled them to hide their desire of overthrowing
Catholicity under the mask of zeal for the public good, passed
a law concerning church property in open violation of common
sense, common honesty, and constitutional rights. Assuming
that the majority of the Legislature are the owners of all real
and personal property in the State, and that the actual owners
are merely tenants at their pleasure, they enacted that all prop-
erty held by any person in any ecclesiastical oflSce or orders
vshould, on his death, vest in the occupants or congregation using
it, if they were incorporated or would incorporate, and in default,
in the people of the State. Another clause provided that no
deed of property to be used for divine worship should be legal
or have any force unless made to a corporation. By these ab-
surd enactments no individual can purchase a lot for a chapel,
and though he pay the value the deed is inoperative ; and if,
prior to the passing of the act, any individual owned property
used for divide worship, it would, on his death, pass not to his

* f

^i';

I'M

;,,H

::.

416

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

lieii's, buL to any set of men to wliom he might have lei it, or
^vho liad even intruded into it.*

The absurdity of the whole Mtfiiir was, however, but a cloak to
the real desire of seizing the property of the Catholics or ham-
pering them in its use.

Sc;arcely had the act passed the Senate when the Most Rev-
erend Archbishop returned from Europe, and having read the
strange documents, including petition, act, and the speeches
made in regard to it, deemed it due to himself to protest against
the false statements in regard to himself on which it was based.
These were chiefly an assertion in the petition of the trustees of
St. Louis Church that he had attempted to compel them to
convey the title of their church property to him, and an assertion
made by Erastus Brooks, editor of the New York Express, and
member of the Senate, that the Archbishop of New York owned
property in the city of New York to an amount which he sup-
posed not much short of five millions of dollars. The plan of
the schemers was evident ; they wished to represent the Cath-
olic prelates as grasping at all property, and as already owners
of immense amounts.

The arclibi^liop at once came forward and so completely re-
futed the trustees of St. Louis that they admitted that he never
had demanded the title of their property. Mr. Brooks attempted
to show that his assertion was well founded, and in a long seiies
of letters, full of abuse and old records, attempted to make good
his case ; but the archbishop followed him, step by step, and so
completely exposed the unjust means used to pass the act, and
the intrinsic usurpations of the statute itself, as to destroy all the
adv :.iiJ<ige which the enemies of Catholicity wished to obtain.
In tue letter closing the controversy he says : " This is, I think,

* See this ridiculous law in the Laws of the State ci" New York for 1855^
oh. 280.

ily re-
liever

ptcd
series
good
nd so
b, and
11 the

tain,
hink,

1 1855,

IN THE UNITED STATES.

447

the first stat ate passed in the LegisUuui'o of Xcw York, since the
Ilcvohitior., which has for its object to abridge the religious and
encroach on the civil rights of the members of one specific reli-
gious denomination. Hitherto, when any denomination of
Christians in the State desired the modification of its laws aflfect-
ing church property, the Legislature waited for their petitions to
that effect, took the same into consideration, and when there
was no insuperable objection, modified the laws so as to accom-
modate them to the requirements of the particular sect or de-
nomination by whom the petition had been presented. Thus
the law of 1*784, though still on the statute book, has become
practically antiquated and obsolete. From its odious and often
impracticable requirements, the Episcopalians, the Presbyterians,
the Methodists, the Dutch Reformed Church, the Quakers, and
perhaps others besides, have at various times solicited exemption
at the hands of the Legislature, and obtained special enactments
more in accordance with their faith and discipline respectively.
Now this antiquated law is the one which is revived, reinvigor-
atcd, strengthened by provisions for contingent confiscation of
church property, and forced upon the Catholics of the State of
New York as sufficiently good for them. They had not peti-
tioned for it ; they did not desire it ; they will not have it, if
they can lawfully dispense with its enactments."

As this attempt on the rights of Catholics, and the discussion
which grew out of it, attracted great attention, the archbishop
published the controversy, with an introduction, in which he re-
viewed the whole history of trusteeistr; in the United States, and
especially the evils which it had produced in St. Pe^'-i's Church,
the cradle of Catholicity in New York. The faithful have in-
deed been so thoroughly convinced of the miseries of that system,
that not a single congregation in any part of the State showed
the least approval of the conduct of the trustees of St. Louis
Church, but all regarded the attack as an i?isidious attempt to

f^W^f':

•"i

448

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

defraud them of the shrines which wiih so many sacrifices thoy
had leared to the servjce of Ahni;>-iity God.*

While a great wrong was thus jneditated, tlie archbishop \vix6
consoled by the arrival of Iwo new colonies of religi'^iis wovr.en
to aid in the great cause of education. These were the Urbulinas
and Sisters of the Holy Cross. I'b.e former wit-e, as we have
seen, no stranger;, in the diocese, th^iii order i];iving been tho
lirst to 'siablisli a convent in New York — that, hov. over, had
loUjg h an closed when this nc-w colony ui the Daught'^rs of St.
Angela M-jii.ci appi aT'ed, It v:onsisted of eleven religious, under
the giiidancf; of Mo Iht Magialen Stehlca, who, ou the 16th of
May, 1855, founded vi Sum IVujrrisania, in the county of West-
chester, the eleventh h'tn^: of t];eir order which has existed in
the United States. Thv^se IJtsuliaes came from a convent at St.
Louis, iv the State of Missouri, founded in the year 1848, thr(>ugh
the zeal and exertions of Mother Stehlen and two other Sist«irs,
who, with the permission of their diocesan, left the Ursuline C'.)ii-
vent at Oedensbiitg, in Hungary, to labor in America. Joined
b V otlicv German Sisters from the convent of Landshut, in Ba-
vari;j, tiie house prospered rapidly, and in 1855 was enabled to
send i.. rolony to New York, where, as elsewhere, they devote
themselviis to the education of children of their own sex.f

The Sisters of the Holy Cross had a special object in view.
The orphan asylums at New York had been for years under the
direction of the Sisters of Charity, who brought up the children
with a zeal and care beyond all praise ; but on aniving at a cer-
tain age the children were bound out as apprentices, and many,
thus thrown upon an unfeeling v/orld, were lost to religion and

* Brooksiana ; or the controversy between Senator Brooks and Archbit
Hughes, grown out of tho recently enacted Church Property Bill ; witi
introduction by the Most Keverend Archbishop of New York. !^"^pw "i
1855.

\ Metropolitan Magazine, iv. 1.^'

-Ji »iui

lies tlK'.y
ihop 'A'tuj

A WOViVPll

we liave
been the
wor, uad
jrs of St.
us, under
e 16th of
of West-
ixisted in
ent at St.
, through
ii- Sisters,
dine on-
Joined
it, in Ba-
labled to
y devote

l-t
in view.

Inder the

children

I at a cer-

id many,

fion and

rchbif . '

wit! f--

|pw "i ' ■

IN THE UNITED STATES.

44i)

society. The object of a new establishment was to teach these
girls trades in a house under the direction of some pious Sisters,
and thus enable them to earn a livelihood, and attain an age less
liable to be deceived before eutenng on the careex* of life. The
Sisters of the Holy Cross chosen for this work were founded in
France by the Rev. Basil Mary Anthony Moreau, in the year 1830,
and are consecrated to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of
Mary. They unite teaching with the various works of mercy as
the objects of their institute.

The Sisters of the Holy Cross were introduced into the United
States in connection with the Priests of the Holy Cross about
1842, and have an extensive establishment at South Bend, Indi-
ana, where there is a novitiate of the order. The community in
Indiana numbers thirty-three professed Sisters, thirty-eight novi-
ces, and twenty-five postulants. Among their fields of labor
there which they have faithfully cultivated is the manual-labor
schools, and these they have successfully introduced at New
York, where, as we have seen, they instruct the female orphans
in the various trades.*

Thus terminates our rapid sketch of the diocese of New York,
where Catholicity has made such progresi? under the episcopacy
of the Most Reverend John Hughes. Of him it has been well
remarked, "that a man who has obtained so great a mastery
over his fellow-man must have greatness in him." No prelate of
the Catholic Church has ever attained in the United States a
position such as his : Avith a singular talent for unravelling at a
glance the intrigues and movements of political men, and of fore-
seeing the re 'Its of public measures and agitations, his writings
are ever t' -'v^ly, profouad, md convincing. Whenever a move-
ment a' .;ts the Church, his voice is li^iUned to with attention

* De Courcy, Les Servantej de Dieu en Canada, p. 108. Memoir of the
■"lev. Mr. Cointet. A full account of the order will bo given hereafter, in
our sketch of Inuluna.

tiSJ:**'

-nitelXrt-w*-

( 1

, i

III

liir

!, J

< It!

I -I

450

THE CATUOLir OilURCH

by all, and tlic press from one extremity of the country to the
other reproduces and comn)cnts liis words as those of a public
document. No man accordingly has more bitter opponcfits, or
more enthusiastic adherents : his name is in the mouths of all,
and all view in him the uncompromising advocate and expound-
er of Catholic views.

Nor has the Archbishop of New York attained this eminence
by deserting, like the courtly prelates of other days, his episcopal
duties for the arena of secular affairs. Ilis voice is never raised
but in matters connected with the Church, and Catholicity in
New York is the proof of his devotedness as a pastor. Overcom-
ing by his talents the dissensions and parties that existed among
the clergy and laity, he gave unity and power to the Catholic
body, who instead of wasting their energies and means, no less
than piety and devotion, in strife and rebellion, have since sought
to enrich the State with churches, colleges, academies, schools
for rich and poor, — with asylums where every human ill is cared
for, — cloisters and monastic halls where a higher ascetic feeling
is cultivated or welcomed. These are his eulogy.

i ; i

IN THE UNITED STATES.

451

CHAPTER XXVI.

DIOCESES OF ALBANY, BUFFALO, D'.IOOKLYK, AND NEWARK.

Diocese of Albany— Early Catholic adiiirs- Church and Mission of the Presentation at
Ogdensburg— St. Itegis — Clmplatiis at Ticonderoga ami Crown Point— Kev. Mr. de la
Vallniuro and his church on Lake Clianii'lain— Cliiirch at Albany — Early pastors —
lucroaso of Catholicity — Ai)i)ointinent of lit. Rev. Jolin M'Closkey as first bishop—
Ills aflininisitnition— Institutions— RoiiKiims Orders— Jesuits— Ladles of the Sacred
Heart— Brothers of the Christian Schools.

Diocese of Buffalo — French chiiiilains at Fort Niagara — Early Catholic matters — Ap-
pointment of llie Rt. Rev. John Tiition as bisliop— The Je.«uits, Redetnptorlsts, Fran-
ciscans, Christian Brothers, and Ladies of the Sacred Heart— Sisters of Chaiity, Sis-
ters of St. Joseph, Sisters of St. Bridget and of Our Lady of Charity— State of the
diocese.

Diocese of Brooklyn— Catholicity on Long Island— First church in IJrooklyn— Progioss
— Et. Rev. John Loughlin first bishop — Visitation Nup ; isters of Charity— Sisters
of Mercy — Dominican Sisters.

Diocese of Newark — Catholicity in New Jerspy— Its p-ogress — Appointme'::. of Et
Eov. James R. Bayley, first bishoj)— Seton Hall.

In our opening ch'apter on the Cluircli in the State we dwelt
at some length on the eaily Catholic nusdions among the Five
Nations of Iroquois, and of their close in consequence of political
schemes and intrigues.

The treaty of Utrecht in 1713, by acknowlodgiug the author-
ity of England over the Five Iroquois Nations, had forced the
missionaries to abandon the Iroquois to their new master.
Nothing but a war could again open to religion the way to the
cantons. In 1*745 the Abbe Francis Picquet accompanied his
flock — tbe radians of the Lake of the Two Mountain.s — in the
expedition against Fort Edward. During the continuation of
hostilities he !•, occasion to see the New York Iroquois, and
found therad!^p'^ jd .o embrace Camolicitv; but as he could not
'ven think of attempting a mission in tl;e Indian towns in the

.-•■HMJ

Iti'

462

THE CATHOLIC CUU-UCH

I'"

interior of Now York, wliore tho Eiiglis^li would not liavo toler-
ated his presence, the Abbo rii'':u'it resolved to found Ji Reduc-
tion near the embouchure o. !..,,"» uturio into the St. Luwrenco,
in order to attrnct to that, sf ot tlie well disposed ainon^j the In-
dians of the League. Tfis project was approved by the Governor
of Canada, and in the month of May, 1748, ho set out to choose
a site, and decided on a beautiful port at the nioii+i< of the Oswe-
gatchie, where the city of Ogdonsburg iiosv scands. With tho
help of his French and Indians, the missionary erected a store-
house and palisade fort, to whicli he gave the name of the Pre-
sentation, in hu' or of the holiday which is the patronal feast of
the Congregation of St. Sulpice, to which he belonged. In the
month of ( ctober, 1*749, a war party of Mohawks set fire to tho
Presentation, and occasioned the Abbo Picquct a loss of thirty
thousand livres. Unrliscouraged, however, he at groat expense
repaired the loss, and having begun his mission with six Indian
families, he had the consolation of counting, in 1751, four hun-
dred families, comprising three thousand souls, and composed
almost entirely of Onondagas and Cayugas.

The success of Mr. Picquet silenced the envy and jealousy in
Canada which at first had ridiculed his projects, and people be-
gan to realize the religious and strat^'gic importance of this post
in the very heart of the province of New York. In 1752 the
Bishop of Quebec, Henry Mr.ry du Breuil dc Pontbriaud, visited
the Presentation mission, and after spending several days in in-
structing the neophytes, baptized one hufidred and twenty, and
confirmed many. This was doubtless the first episcopal act per-
formed by a Catholic bishop within tho present limits of the
State of New York. On this occasion t lo ladies of Montreal
embroidered for the mission a beautiful i i er, fill preserved at
the Lake of the Two Mountains. Tho Abbe I'lcquot organized
a civil g-overnment, by appointing a conned of twelve chiefs, who
took an jatli of fidelity to France. He also visited the interior

IN THE UNITED STATES.

453

:o tolcr-

Ileduc-
iwrenco,

the Tn-
lovei'uor
) choose
le Oswo-
\ ith the

a store -
the Pre-

feast of

In the

re to tlio

of thirty

expense
,x Indian
our hun-
omposed

of the cantons, and was everywhere well received by the Indians.
They had in vain awaited the missionaries promised by the
English, and as their chiefs declared in reply to the reproaches
of the English, thuy felt the necessity of Christianity, and were
disposed to emigrate in a body to the St. Lawrence to obtain it.
To efiect this, Mr. I'icquet would have needed other priests to
aid him, skilful, like himself, in gaining the confidence of the
Indians; but he was almost alone, and the Society of Jesus,
•whose suppression the Catholic sovereigns of Europe were de-
manding, could not renew their eftbrts of the previous century.
In 1753, Mr. Picquet went to France, leaving his mission to the
Rev. Peter de la Garde, a Sulpitian, and the following year he
returned to the Presentation with two priests. But the war
which was to end in the conquest of Canada was already enkin-
dled, and instead of peacefully continuing amid his beloved In-
dians the labors of the apostolatc, he had to accompany numerous
military expeditions. For six years Mr. Picquet multiplied his
ondeavors to draw the cantons to the cause of France, cement
alliances or encourage the warriors. So great was his influence
over the tribes that the Marquis du Quesno, Governor of Canada,
said that ihe Abbo Picquet was worth more than ten regiments,
and in battle the Indians always believed him in their midst,
even when he was actually hundreds of miles off. But all the
efforts of Canada could not prevent the progress of the I'nglish,
whose armies invaded that colony on all sides, while it wa>'. ac-
tually abandoned without resources by the mother couiitiy. In
1759 the Rev. Mr. Picquet had been forced to retire from the
Presentation and settle witli his Indians on Grande He aux
Galops, in the midst of the St. Lawrence, to be less exposed to
*he English. There he built a chapel, and on the 2d of Septem-
ber, 1759, was invited to bless Fort Levis, which the French
were erecting on another island in the St. Lawrence. On the
25tb of August, 1760, this fort waa forced to surrender to the

464

THE CATHOLIC OHUllCn

Englisli nftcr n virjorous flofciiico, diroctod by Captain Ptiucliot,
and during tho whole sicgo tlio Ahbo do lu (iardt! ivmaincd on
tho island to take cixra of tho wounded.* In tho month of May,
in tlu! same year, tho Uov. Mr. I'ioquot bade adieu to his mission,
in conformity with tho advice of the governor, to avoid falling
into tho hands of th<! English, and ho descended to Louisiana by
tho lakes and the Mississippi. JIo spent nearly two years at New
Orleans, where his preaching produced a great deal of good, and
at last seeing that Fra?ice sacrificed all lier American possessions,
ho returned to his native country, which his zeal had so faithfully
served abroad for thiity years.f

On the peace, the Rev. Mr. do la Garde obtained permission to
resume the care of tho mission of the Presentation, but the
English garrison at tlie fort ere long demoralized the natives ;
and after a few years the more rtjligious dispersed, seeking, after
many vicissitudes, a refuge at Canadasaga, Caughnawaga, or
St. Francis Regis. This last-named village, situated on tho St.
Lawrence, northeast of the Presentation, is now divided by the
boundary between New York and Canada, .and is thus partly in
the diocese of 7k.lbany. It was founded about 1700 by the Jesuit

* John Potor Bespon do la Giirdo, born in France ftbont 1728, remained in
Canada after tiio conquest, and died on tlic lOtli of April, 1792, Cure of St.
Genevieve.

+ Lettres Edifiuites ct Curieusea. Mumoiro snr la vie de M. Picqnet, niis-
fiionnaire au Canada par M. la Lande de rAcaddtnie dea Sciences. Shea's
History of the Catholic Missions, pp. ;'>;]4-!310. Manuscripts of the Hon. I.
Vigor, Com. St. Grcj?. Francis Picquct, born at Eourg en Bressc, on tho
6th of December, 1708, entered tho Congregation of St. Sulpicc at an early
age. In 1733 he solicited and obtained permission to go to Canada, and de-
voted himself to the Iroquois missions with equal zeal and success. When
in 1753 he came to France to interest the government in his mission, his
family wished to detain him at Bresse, and, on his rcfusiJ, disinherited him.
On his return to Paris in 17G2, he received testimonials of esteem from tho
Clergy of France and from the Sovereign Pontilf, and died at Verjon on the
15th of July, 1781. The astronomer. La Lande, his coiuitryman, who wrote
the memoir cited above, was an infidel of the worst stamp, and was one of
the authors of tho Dictionnaire des Athees.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

455

Fftther Mary Anthony Cordon, with some Iroquois faniilica sent
tVoui CuughniuvagH, and in 1800 it received the refugees from
the Presentation. Father Gordon resided at St. llegis till his
death in 1777. After that, in consequenee of the war and its
troubles, the Iroquois had no peruument pastor till 1705, when
the Rev. Uoderic McDonnell, a zealous Scotch priest, directed
them till his death in 1800. To him succeeded the Rev. John
B. Roupe, a Sulpitian of Montreal, who, becoming an object of
suspicion to the Americans during the war of 1812, was taken
prisoner by their troops, in an attack on his village. His succes-
sor, the Rev. Joseph Marcoux, was so favorable to the Americans
as to be termed by his flock, Ratsihenstatsi Wastonronon, the
American priest.* lie was subsequently for many years at
Caughnawaga, where he died on the 29th of May, 1856, re-
nowned as a philologist and a devoted missionary. His cate-
chisms and prayer-books are used, by the direction of the bishop,
in all the Catholic Iroquois missions, and his dictionaries and
grammars will ever remain a monument to liis learning and a
treasure to the missionaries.!

Since 1832 the Rev. Francis Marcoux has been pastor at St.
Regis, and although part of the village is, as we have said, in the
State of New York, the Bishop of Albany leaves the whole under
the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Montreal, who sends Canadian
missionaries there. St. Regis contains a population of eleven
hundred souls, governed on the Canadian side by chiefs, on the
American side by trustees ; and they form the only remnant of
Catholic Iroquois in the State of New York, where their fore-
fathers of the Five Nations v/ere once so powerful. The unfortu-
nate territorial division of their village between the English and
Americans is still, for the Indians, a source of trouble and intes-

* The Conadians term all Americans Bostonais, and the Indians adopt the
term,
t See skotch of his life and labors in the Mstropolitan, iii. 539.

'•""Will I, _^M^at_.^.^

[ I'i f •

I'I'

i; ;!i

I ^i

456

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

tine diflSculty. The Protestant sects, taking advantage of such a
situation, have made great efforts and greater outlays to pervert
the tribe, and imagined that they had succeeded when they ob-
tained, as an instrument of proselytism, a son of the tribe, whom
they have made an Episcopal clergyman. The Rev. Eleazar
"Williams, not content with playing this part, wished to ape a
still higher one ; and since 1852 nothing will satisfy his vauity
but to be the dauphin of France — Louis XVIL, son of the victim
of the French Revolution. Some Protestant clergyman, it would
seem, must always endorse an imposture in America, whether it
be Maria Monk or Eleazar Williams, and in consequence, the
Rev. John H. Hanson, and even the Rev, F. L. Hawks, lent the
pretender the aid of their influence and personal consideration.
To maintain his thesis, the Rev. Mr. Hanson published a volume
of five hundred pages, besides several articles in a periodical ;*
and it is not easv to conceive how a man of sense can talk so
much of good faith in a work where he tortures historic truth at
every line.f

After having frequently sought to fathom the motives which

* The Lost Prince ; facts tending to prove the identity of Louis XVIL of
France and the Eev. Eleazar Williams. By John H. Hanson. New York,
1854. Putnam's Monthly, February and April, 1853, and February, 1854.

+ At the first attempt to impose this gross fable on the public, the present
writer refuted it step by step in the New York papers. This opposition did
not please the partisans of the Lost Prince, for Mr. Hanson had gained hia
hero many very sincere and enthusiastic friends. The author of the book
himself came to see us, to convert us to his ideas, and failing, represented
us as an agent of the Bishops in Canada, the emissary of all the Bourbons,
paid by the Catholics and royalists to discredit the American Louis XVII,
Yet we produced the sworn statement of Mary Ann Williams, Eleazar's mo-
ther, who in 1853 still survived at St. Eegis, though more than eighty years
of age, and who solemnly attested that Eleazar was her son. We also pub-
lished certificates of the principal Iroquois chiefs at Caughnawaga, affirming
that Eleazar was born in their villf^^e, and we believe that we did something
to prevent the imposture from spreading. He still preserves his partisans,
and the Church to which he belongs is not ashamed to credit this fantastic
pretension of one of its clergymen.

>f such a
0 pervert
they ob-
»e, whom
. Eleazar
to ape a
lis vauity
he victim
, it would
hether it
lence, the
, lent the
sideration.
a volume
ricdical ;*
in talk so
Q truth at

ves which

is XVII. of
[New York,
Iry, 1854.
Itlie present
position did
gained his
If the book
represented
Bourbons,
)ui3 XVII.
2azar's mo-
Jghty years
also pub-
L, affirming
I something
partisans,
ts fantastic

IN THE UNITED STiTES.

457

induced Mr. Hanson and his colleagues to accredit this fable, we
find only one plausible explanation. The first article in the pe-
riodical, " Have we a Bourbon among us ?" was thrown before
the public at a moment when the Episcopalians of America were
filled with vexation and shame at the striking conversion of one
of their bishops, Dr. Levi S. Ives. It was necessary to divert
attention from a fact so fitted to inspire reflections and seek the
truth sincerely. Curiosity was to be stimulated by leaving a
considerable interval between the articles, and Episcopalian vanity
to be flattered, by persuading them that if they had lost a bishop
they had gained a king. In fact, they succeeded for several
months in engaging the popular attention with the imaginary
adventures of the Dauphin of France ; but it would seem that
the instigators of the movement having used their instrument,
have cast it aside, leaving Mr. Williams to turn to account, as
best he may, his royal origin.*

Independently of the miss'onaries whom France sent into the
interior of New York to evangelize the Indians, other priests took
up their residence in the fortified posts where the French had
garrisons, and the efforts of the governors of New York failed for
eighty years before the perseverance of their Canadian neighbors.
In vain did they endeavor to drive the French beyond the St.

* The following advertisement appeared in the New York pupcra, in Jan-
uary, 1854, and is a sample of those used to draw a crowd around his pulpit.
•'The Rev. Eleazar Williams, said to be the long-lost Dauphin of France,
will preach an interesting sermon to-morrow evening at St. Paul's Church,
Brooklyn, and a collection will be taken up to build a church for the St. Re-
gis Indians, of whom ho is the spiritual pastor. The Rev. Mr. Williams ia
67 years old, and claims to be the identical Louis XVII. of France. This
cannot fail to make his sermon interesting to the people of Brooklyn." This
pious call is a series of voluntary errors. The Rev. Mr. Williams is not pas-
tor of the St. Regis Indians, who despise him, and have repeatedly driven
from their village a man who seeks to lead them into apostasy. Repulsed
by the Canadian government, which told him that the St. Regis Indians had
a Catholic pastor, Mr. Williams collects funds in the United States to seduce
his ooivutrymen.

458

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Lawrence ; they succeeded only when the white fljig of the
Bourbons disappeared in Canada.

In 1732 the French reared a fort, to which they gave the
name of St. Frederic, on the southern shore of Lake Champlain,
in order to cover Montreal from the attack* of the Englisli. This
point bore the name of Pointe a la Chevulure, which the English
translated Crown Point. The Swedish naturahst, Kalm, tells us
that Fort St. Frederic was so named in honor of M. de Maurepas,
and that there was within the fort a well-built church, where the
soldiers assembled morning and evening for prayer. " The French,"
he adds, " give much more time in their colonies to prayer and
outward worship than the English and Dutch settlers in the
English colonies."* He remarks, too, that in the craft in which
he ascended the Hudson the hands performed no devotions, while
in the French sloop that took him down Lake Champlain he was
edified by the religious conduct of the crew, especially on Sun-
day.f

Of this fort the names of the chaplains have fortunately come
down to us, and among them is Father Emmanuel Crespel, fa-
mous for the interesting narrative of his shipwreck, whom we
shall also find at Niagara.^

* Kalm, Travels in North America. Translate^' from the Swedish, hy J.
K. Forster: Warrington, 1770; iii. 148. The travels of tliis learned natu-
ralist are very interesting, especially as regards Canada. He speaks well of
religion, and describes judiciously the churches, convents, and other esrtab-
liahments at Quebec and Montreal. Ho was much pleased with the Jesuits,
with whom ho frequently dined, and among whom ho found, as he avows,
scientific men fully equal to himself. On his return to Sweden he was niado
a Lutheran bishop,
t Kalm, iii. 44.

X The names of the chaplains at Fort St. Frederic, or Beauharnais, as
drawn by the learned Mr. Jacques Viger, of Montreal, from the register still
pieserved in the prothonotary'a olfice, are —

John Baptist Laj us, 1732-33. Alexis du Buron, 1743-4G.

Peter Baptist Reache, 1738-84. Bonaventure Ca-pentior, 1747.
Benardine de Gaunes, 1784-3i. Hypolite Collet, 1747-54.

Emmanuel Crespel, 1735-8G. j)idacus Cliche, 1754-58.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

459

r of the

rave the
araplain,
sh. This
} English
I, tells us
vlaurepas,
rt'here the
3 French,"
rayer and
;rs in the
: in which
ions, while
aiu he was
y on Sun-

itely come
Irespel, fa-
Iwhom we

edish, by J.
lamed natu-
^aks well of

other estab-

|the Jesuits,
ho avows,

|e was nuido

Iharnuia, as
jegister still

t'43-4G.
r47.
r47-54.
54-58.

In I'Zoo the French built a fort still farther towards the capital
of New York, at Carillon, now Ticondcroga, and here in 1757
they repulsed the army of General Abercromhie. This was,
however, the last effort of their power, and on the 26th of July,
1769, Bourlamarque had to evacuate Ticondcroga and fall back
on Canada. Some weeks after Montcalm was killed, and Quebec
surrendered to England. The conquest of Canada was a momen-
tary triumph for Protestantism, and the missionaries disappear cd
from the State of New York.

When the American army under Montgomery entered Canada,
a number of the French settlers joined their standard, and were
enrolled in Lieber's and Oliver's companies, as we have stated
when speaking of the political mission of Father Carroll. Among
the young men of Chambly, Assumption, and Machiche the
Americans also found some sympathizers, especially in the Aca-
dians. It is easy to conceive the deep-seated hatred of the
English government which they nurtured in their hearts. Soine
had been treacherously banished from Acadia in 1755, and after
an exile of greater or less duration, had joined the Canadians,
fellow-countrymen in their eyes ; others had fled to Canada wher
the English began the work of pillage and devastatioTi in Acadia.
All nourished an inveterate luitred against their oppressors, and
seconded the Americans in their enterprise to wrest the St. Law-
rence from Great Britain. On the evacuation of Canada in 1776
those most compromised followed the retreating army, and re-
mained till the close of the war incorporated in various regimenta
of the American army. Their families in many cases were also
compelled to follow. A letter of General Schuyler's, dated Au-

Peter Verquaillie,
Daniel,

1736-41. Anthony Deperet,
1741-43. Felix de Bercy,

1738-59.

1700.

The last entry in the reeistcr, a baptism, is dated Jan'y 12, 1760, but F. do
Bcrey could not have pertbruied it at Crown Point, which the French hud
left in the summer of 1759.

I' t

I !

400

THE CATHOLIC CHUIICH

gust 18, 1776, contains a pressing recommendation in favor of
the Canadians of Livingston's, Ilazen's, and Duggan's corps, then
at Albany, representing them as in tho greatest destitution and
nakedness. The general adds that many Canadian refugees not
in the army wore in the same state.* The latter were even more
miserable, isolated in a foreign country, whose language they
knew not, and whose religion they did not sharo. The Slate of
jNiew York at last took pity on part of these unfoituuaie people,
ar 1 in 1789 and 1790 granted lands northwest of Lake Cham-
plain to about two hundred and fifty Canadian and Acadian
reiugees. These lands are situated in the present county of
Clinton, and the villages of Chazy and Corbeau are inhabited in
part by the descendants of these soldiers of the Revolution.
Others of the Cana^Mans settled at Fishkill, where we have seen
the apostolic Father Farmer laboring among them ; others at
jN^ew York, and more at Split Rock Bay, on Lake Champlain.

Both those at New York and those at Split Rock were for a
time attended by a clergyman whose sufferings and eccentric life
require some details. Peter Huet de la Valiniere, born at
Nantes, in Buttany, on the 10th of January, 1732, was received,
into the Congregation of St. Sulpice, and came to Montreal a
sub-deacon in 1755. He was ordained priest at Quebec in 1757,
and was one of the twenty-eight Sulpitians who submitted to be-
come English subjects when twelve of theii' brethren returned to
France. Mr. de la Valiniere does not, however, seem to have
succeeded in conceiving a very lively affection for the new mas-
ters of Canada, and in 1776, while pastor at the Assvjnption, fell
under the suspicion of government for his political conduct and

* Aniericaa Archives, Series V. vol. i. 1031. Tlie same collection, S. IV.
vi. 1)'2;5, mentions a captain's commission given by Sullivan to Francis Guillot,
of Kiviere du Loup ; and in V. 1. 798, names tlio Canadians, Loseau, AI-
ler, Basade, and Mcnarcce (Menard), as officers iii Col. James Livingston's
regiment. Colonel Fremont, the explorer, is the adi of a Canadian who em-
igrated to the United States in 1790.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

4G1

his sympathy for the army of the United States then in the
colony.* Even before receiving the complaints of the governoi',
the bishop had several times removed Mr. de la Valiniere from
one point to another away from the frontiers, but as that clergy-
man still expressed his opinions freely, Sir Francis Haideman
seized him in lYSO, and sent him in a frigate to England. After
remaining eighteen months in a prison-ship he was set at liberty,
and reached J3rittany towards the close of 1781. Soon dissatis-
fied with his family, and meeting, in consequence of his eccen-
tricity, a rather cool reception from the Sulpitiaus at Paris, he
resolved to return to Canada, and set sail for Mar\inique. From
this point the Abbe de la Valiuiere proceeded to St. Domingo,
and had scarcely recovered from an attack of the yellow fever
when he took passage in a small craft for Newburyport. From
this Massachusetts port he travelled on foot to Montreal, Avhere
he arrived in the early part of June, 1785. He remained till
August ; but the Rev. Mr. Montgolfier, the Superior of St. Sul-
pice, wished him to leave the country, and the Bishop of Quebec
gave him very favorable letters for the United States. Again he
set out on foot for Baltimore, and having been received by the
Rev. Mr. Carroll, asked Father Farmer to be allowed to reside at
New York and exercise tiie ministry for the Canadians and
French. On transmitting this request to Father Carroll, on the

* On the 12th of August, 1776, M. de Monfgolfier, Superior of St. Sulpioe,
wrote to the Bishop of Quebec : " As to tlie clertry, they renmin in the best
disposition with regard to submission to Lawful authority I luive hith-
erto observed silence as to tlio tlireo missionaries of Sault St. JiOui.-, Li.m-
gucuil, anf' Assumption (M. de hi Valiniere), tlie most culpable and least re-
covered of all. I should like him got out of the country; he is very volatile,
and, though of correct life, will undoubtedly give us some trouble." Ar-
chives of the See of Quebec.

The missionary at Siiult St. Louis -was Father Joseph ITuguet, S. J., who
was stationed thevc from 1757, till his de;.i!i, May 6, 178!3. The government
either would not or durst not remove him. The Cure of Longueuil, from
1763 to Oct. 1, 1777, was the llav. Claude Carpentier, a secular priest. IIo
wub removed, in 1777, to Vercheros, where ho died in 1708.

\"> k

! 'i

);' •:

462

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

27th of December, 1785, Fatlier Farmer adds : "I have no doubt
Mr. de la Valiniere's stay among these poor people, and his dis-
courses to them, will revive their past devotion. My answer to
him was, that till your pleasure be known, he might exercise at
New Yoi'k, with respect to the Canadians and French only, those
faculties which your reverence had given him. To this answer I
was moved by the extreme spiritual necessity of these poor peo-
ple. Another motive was mentioned by himself, and it is that
foinieriy, in Canada, he had been the ordinary pastor of those
vohnitary exiles ; and may we not add to these motives that he
Y/or our fellow-missionary in America, and that he comes with
approbation from a neighboring bishopric ?"*

When the revolted 'rustees drove Father Whelan from New
Yor" , February, 1736, Mr. de la Valiniere received j'owers as
parish priest, without restriction to the French and Canadians.
But the incessant troubles of the consfreijation induced him to
abridge his stay ; and besides, the worthy priest had too restless
a mind to dwell long in one spot. Accordingly, towards April,
he journeyed off to Philadelphia, then made his way as a pedes-
trian to Pittsburg, and descending the Ohio in a battean — not
without frequent pursuits from the Indians — he went and offered
himself as pastor to the French in Illinois. But they did not
accept his services ; and after three years' strife, of which we
shall speak in connection with that part, he descended to New
Orleans by the Wabash and Ohio. There, after narrowly es-
caping death from a serious disorder, the Abbe de la Valiniere
took passage on a vessel for Havana ; thence visited successively
Florida, Charleston, Stonington, and New York, and in the
month of October, 1790, he greatly astonished his old associates
of St. Sulpice by asking hospitality from them at Montreal. lie
was charitably received ; but he was entreated to make his stay

* Campbell, iu U. S. Catholic Magazine, vi. 146.

\o doubt
[ his dis-
iswer to
jrcise at
ly, those
answer I
)oor peo-
t is that
of those
i that he
mes with

om New
owers as
anadians.
d him to
o restless
■ds April,
a pedes-
an — not
d offered
did not
ivhich wo
to New
jowly es-
Adiniere
[Cessivcly
1 in the
ssociates
al. Ilo
his stay

IN THE UNITED STATES.

463

as short as possible, as they did not wisn to compromise them-
felves with the English government. Before the close of the
month he left Montreal, to take up his abode on the banks of
Lake Champlain, near Split Rock Bay, where, as we have seen,
some of the Canadian refugees had settled. Here Mr. de la
Valiniere built a chapel and house for himself, and of his own
authority, and, without jurisdiction, formed a parish. After
three years' stay, he set his parishioners so much against him,
that, to get rid of their pastor, they set fire to his church and
house. He then returned to Canada, where the Seminary of
Montreal gave him an annual pension of twenty-five pounds, on
condition that lie would remain quietly in the parish of St. Sul-
pice. He lived till 1806, preserving to the close his restless
chr.racter and singular devotions, combined with an exemplary
r.asterity of life. He was killed at Repentlgny, by a fall from a
wagon, on the 29th of June, 180G.*

Poetry, as he understood it, was his great consolation in his
troubles; and in 1*792, while residing on the banks of Lake
Champlain, he printed at Albany a poem of 1644, recounting
his adventures. The preface is to the air of the Enfant Prodigue,
and the twelve chapters that follow are to the tune of the air
Folks d"* Espagne. This original character deserves to be bet-
ter known in America, for it was in consequence of his sympa-
thy in the United States, that the Abbe de la Valiniere was sub-
jected to numberless trials during the last thirty years of his
life.f

In consequence of the troubles of 1838, a still greater Cana-
dian emigration to Now York and Vermont took place ; and
besides these political causes, there is periodically the seducing

* Biograpliie de M. dc ia Valiniere, by the Very Kev. F. X. Noiseux, for-
merly Viear-general of Quebec. This sketch we had to rectify ut almost
every line, by documents from the archives of the See of Quebec.

t The title of the poein ii», " Vralc histoire ou simple precis des infor-
tuues, pour ne pas dire des perbecutious qu'a souifert et soulTre encore le

4G4

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

. , ;

reason of a liiglier price of labor to induce tlie people of Canada
to cross the frontier. The faith of these poor pfople, and es'
pecially that of their cliildrcn, runs great danger amid the
Protestant and freethinking population of the United States ;
hence we cannot be sui'prised to find the Canadian clergy disap-
prove, in general, this emigration of ("Catholics, leaving their vil-
lage churches to wander at hazard in seaich of niaterial goods,
and setting the wants of the bodv above the essential interests
of their souls. The parish of Corbeau, inhabited chiefly by easy
Canadian farmers, has had for the last twenty years a church, and
I)astor who speaks French. The Canadian population is about
four thousand souls. But in other localities the landholders
are the exception ; and the general condition of the French
Canadians in the State of New York is that of farm-hands, or
laborers in the forges and furnaces which dot the little rivers in
the north of the State. For the last two years a French priest
lias resided at Keeseville ; he counts three thousand Canadian
Catholics in his parish, and sfirves also Elizabeth and Westport,
where he assembles at the altar three hundred of the faithful
scattered in the neighborhood. At Plattsburg the Oblates have
undertaken to build St. Peter's Church, and the census made by
Father Bernard in 1853 gives a total for his parish of six hun-
dred Canadian families, or three thousand three hundred and fifty

Eev. Pierre Huet de hi Vnliuiere, mis cnvers par lui-in6mc en Juillct, 1702
A Albany, imprime aux depens de Taiiteur."

Tlie reader will see that the versifier must have borne the expense of tlio
publication, when he reads such couplets as —

"LallavRne, la Florido Espagnoli?,
Cliarlestown, et Stonin^tton, et New York,
N'ont ripn pour iiioi qui me paraisse drole.
Je pri'fore du Canada le pore."

In 1823, the house which he occupied at St. Snlpico ha%'in<z become tlio
Hotel Robillard, our friend Mr. Jacques Viger stoppings there one night,
found the woodwo'k all covered with little rnediillions, in which the ag'cd
priest had written verses exhaling his griefs.

ki^*> i

IN THE UNITED STATES.

465

souls. One of the Oblfi' ?atliers also serves Rochvo n1, where ho
numbers four hundred d'tl olio fainilies. In the eity of Troy,
one of the chu' ;hes is reserved for the Canadians. At Capo
Vineent, on Lake Ontario, there is a parish made up chietly of
the descendants of French colonists, sent thither by Mr. Leray
de Chaurnont, who had considerable pr'M^t'rt'' there.*

We have seen that the clergy of France and Canada have gone
in search of those emigrants wlio have abandoned the neighbor-
hood of their parish churches, not kn .ring where they shouM
lind a priest to near the confession of thei faults and to instruct
their childi ;> St'll, many churches and missionaries are needed
to preserve these poor people from losing the faith ; and most
frequently they have not means to raise a chapel and support a
priest. Not veiy cordially viewed by the Catholics of other ori-
gins, the Canadians retire and isolate themselves ; and while a
priest who preaches in their language, aiid specially inteicsts
himself in them, obtains the happiest results, the Irish or Amer-
ican priest does not inspire a confidence ^^hich he does not
seek.

We need not wonder, then, if the faith n . lost some of its
children among the descendants of the Cauadinii ^migrants, when
they are deprived of all religious succor. J^ut the missionary
who settles amid these families easily awakens Catholic senti-
ments, unless they have lost the French language. Uutbitu-
uately, sensible losses to the Church result f'om the necessity in
which widows with families ai'e of placing their children in
American houses, where, with English, they learn all the preju-
dices of Protestantism or infidelity. Mixed marriages are another

* Bishop Dubois wrote on this subject from Eome, on the 16t,h of March,
]830, " I should never cease, were I to speak of all the hamlets that I find
abandoned along the lakes and the St. Lawrence. Half the p( pulution of
these villages are French from Canada, who liave come and settled on the
American side." Annates de la Propagation dc Ir F' i, iv. 450.

20*

■ (,

'il

466

THE r\TIIOLIC CIirKCH

/I.

: ,!^

H»

if '

80111 oe of {vpostfisv, osncci'fiUy where the wife is ;i Protestant. 'i)><\
Ainorioan woin.ii, hiiving inoro sii[t(.'rficinl ednciitioii than the
simpli; C/aiiadians. r>uft'('d up with tlieir little leariiiiit,', hikI faiiati-
cised by ihcir books aii<l ministers, are untiring in thiir ell'orts to
shake the faitli of their husbands, and gain ihein to their conve-
nient and not troublesome creed. Finally, the public schools are
u ijreat danger; and the habitual contact of Catliolic and Trot-
ostant children cannot but be injurious to the former.

We have dwelt on the religious wants of the C/anadian popu-
lation of the State of New York, in order to attract the attention
of France to them, and preserve tlieni from heresy. We have
said it : these emigrants are poor, and the most they can by any
eiTort do, is to rear a church and give the priest a scanty support.
Every village should, moreover, liavc its French Catholic school,
confided to religious congregations, and Canada will joyfully
furnish colonies of its educational Sisterhoods to preserve the
faith of its children. Tlie admirable Association for the Pi'0})a.-
gation of the Faith ffiv<>s much to the difiVrent dioceses in tho
United States. W- .■re confident that it will take an interest in
founding French schools among the descendants of the Freucli,
where language is a safeguard to religion. V\'e cannot too
strongly recommend this Canadian population to the solicitude
of the two Councils of Paris and Lyons, and we express oui
earnest wisli that special grants of theirs w ill enable the Cana-
dians to finish their churches at Plattsburg and Cape Vincent;
pay the most pressing debts which the French clergy have had
to contract; to build new chapels in places wdu:-re the nucleus of
a Catholic population already exists ; in fine, to call in Sisters
and Brothers to instruct the children of poor families in their
religion and language. It is doublless a noble work to call to
the faith a nation seated in the shadow of death ; but when
thousands of Catholics are pastorless, and these Catholics are the
descendants of the French, the tai^k of preserving them from the

IN THE UNITED STATES.

467

seductions of error especially recommends itself to the generosity
of France.

If tlie bishops and clergy of Lower Canada grieve to see emi-
gration tend to the United Stat s, when ^^ might find resources

minishing the nu-

tui nt hfis been per-

C.inadians to the

■Ives in the fate

in the upper part of the province wit!
merical strength of Catholicity ; if this
petuated since the eftbrt of 1775 to d
American cause, still the bishops inter st
of their children who have forsaken theai ; and Mouseigneur
Bourget, the prasent Bishop of Montreal, was long Vicar-general
of the diocese of New York for the Canadians in the north of
that State. Ho has frequently administered confirmation at Cor-
beau and other parishes within the United States, and the de-
scendants of the French there honor the arrival of the prelate
with demonstrations and an enthusiasm which astouisii American
phlegm. Ever since the foundation of the See of Baltimore in
1790, the Canadian clergy have taken a lively interest in the
liopes of religion in the United States ; and in proof of the as-
sertion, we arc happy to be able to cite the following letter, ad-
dressed to Bishop Carroll, on the 5th of December, 1791, by the
Right Rev. John Francis Hubert. It will prove that if, in 1776,
Father Carroll saw the clergy of Montreal avoid him, it was only
in consequence of the political character borne by the zealous
restorer of religion in Maryland :

" I profit by a moment of repose left by the affairs of the dio-
cese, to send you my tardy, but at the same time most sincere
felicitations, on your promotion to the See of Baltimore. God
has used you, Monseigneur, to give birth to a new Church, to es-
tablish in North America a second diocese, which will, I hope,
hereafter constitute a considerable portion of Christ's kingdom
on earth. You surely have not established it without great pain
and great merit. With all my heart I pray Divine Providence
to reward you, and I thank Him for having given my diocese tho

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4G8

THE CATHOLIC CHUKCH

advantage of having another CathoHc diocese in its neighbor-
hood.

" Letters from Puris tell me that you had a design of estab-
lishing a seminary in your episcopal city, and that Mr. Nagot, a
priest of St. Sulpice, had gone thither witii a dozen young ec-
clesiastics. You could not, Monseigneur, give a more solid base
to the preservation and increase of true faith in these parts. The
particular merit of that director, the renown of the house to
which he belongs, are so many arguments that prove that God,
in calling you to the episcopate, has given you the necessary
economy and wisdom to fill it with success. May lie long pre-
serve a life which must be infinitely dear to the glory of His
name, and the spiritual good of your diocesans."*

At the National Council of Baltimore in 1852, the Right Rev.
Armand de Charbounel, Bishop of Toronto, bound still closer
the bonds of spiritual brotherhood between the hierarchy of the
United States and that of Canada, by coming to take a seat with
the Fathers of the Council, and share in their deliberations.
The American prelates have often gone to represent their wants
to the Catholic population of New France, and returned with
considerable alms.

The Bishops of Burlington and Cleveland have recently called
to their dioceses Canadian Sisters, whose zeal equals their piety.
The two prelates have found that it was much more economical
than to draw religious from Europe ; and it is an examj^le which
others of their venerable brethren would imitate, if Canada can
deprive herself of new colonies in her numerous and varied fami-
ly of handmaids of the Lord.

We have thus dwelt at some length on the connection of the
Canadian Church with that of the State of New York, in re-

* Archives of the See of Quebec. John Francis Hubert ninth Bishop of
Quebec, consecrated Coadjutor in November, 1786, died iu October, 1797.
He had been missionary at Detroit.

!-!l

glibor-

nei

of estab-
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oung ec-
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Its. The
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uecessaiy
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k, m re-

Bishop of
ber, 1797.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

469

gard both to the early labors of Canadian missionaries among
the Indian tribes and of the Catholic part of the population which
is of Canadian origin and still looks to Canada for spiritual sue-
cor. The rise of Catholicity among the people of New York in
the diocese of Albany now claims our attention.

Under the Dutch and British rule we find no trace of Catho-
licity at Albany down to the period of the Revolution. The
Catholic Highlanders in the Mohawk valley seem to stand alone,
and even they were unattended by clergymen, so far as we know.
After the war, however, a number of Catholics were to be found
at the capital of the State, and as early as 1798 we find them
erecting a church in which to worship God according to the
faith of their fathers. Thomas Barry and Louis Le Couteulx
are mentioned as founders, and their names are connected with
early Catholicity in other parts. A notice in the Albany Gazette
informs us that the contributions for its erection came not only
from the Catholics of Albany and their fellow-citizens, but from
the liberal in other cities of the United States and Canada. It
was under roof, glazed, and floored early in September, and we
are informed by the papers of the day " that it is a neat building,
and will be an ornament to the city and a lasting blessing to all
who are members in communion of that church." In their ap-
peal to the Catholics generally for means to complete it, the
founders say : " Such of our Catholic brethren in this neighbor-
hood as have not already contributed, it is hoped will now come
forward and offer their mite to discharge the last payment of
the contract, there being but a small sum in hand for that pur-
pose. To give to the Church, is it not to lend to the Lord, who
will richly repay the Iberal giver with many blessings ? Should
not all the members unitedly raise their voices in praise to God,
who has cast their lot in this good land, where our Church is
equally protected with others, and where we all so bountifully
partake of His goodness ? What is man without religion, which

./"T^

K i

■ ■! I

^1-

470

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

teaches us the love of God and our neighbor, and to be in charity
with all mankind ? Surely without this he is nothing."*

As appears by the names of the founders, the first Catholics
were French and Irish, and among the former we may mention
Count de la Tour de Pin and his wife, a daughter of Count Dil-
lon, of the Irish brigade, who, after serving in Rochambeau's
army during our Revolution, perished in the Reign of Terror.f

The resident clergyman under whose impulse this church rose
seems to have been the Rev. John Thayer, of Boston, whose con-
version to the faith was one of the earliest triumphs of religion
here. His stay was, however, short, and in the following year
we find him in Kentucky, and in 1800 the Rev. Dr. Matthew
O'Brien seems to have been stationed there, as he preached the
funeral oration on "Washington in the church in the month of
February, and officiated there later in the year.J

About 1807 the Rev. Mr. Bushe was stationed here, and, we
believe, died on the mission ; but when Father Kohlmann, as
vicar-general, was charged with the affairs of the newly-formed
diocese of New York, Albany seems to have been without a
priest, and on the 1st of May, 1811, we find him entreating the
Rt. Rev. Joseph 0. Plessis, Bishop of Quebec, to send missiona-
ries into the State of New York.8 f after, however, the

* We are indebted for these extracts to E. B. O'Callaghan, Esq., so well
known for his historical works. As he informs us, the corner-stone of the
church bears the following inscription :

(Skull.) I. H. S. (Cross-boncR.)

Thomas BABfty, founders.

Louis Le Couteulx, )

E. C. QciN, Master Builder.

A. D.1T98.

t Watson, Memoirs. Memoirs du Due de la Rochefoucauld.

X Information given us by Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan and C. J. Cannon, Esq.
See Spalding's Sketches of Kentucky, p. 78. A full account of the Rev. Mr.
Thayer will be given under the diocese of Boston.

§ Archives of the Diocese of Quebec, for the examination of which we are
indebted to the Rev. J. B. Ferland.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

471

1 we are

Rev. Mr. McQuaid was stationed there, but on the arrival of
Bishop Connolly, that clergyman resolved to return to Ireland,
notwithstanding the urgent appeals of the newly-appointed
bishop. For a time Albany was without a pastor, but the good
bishop sent up the Rev. Michael O'Gorman, little as he could
spare him from New York. This clergyman not only served
Albany, but extended his labors to the Indians at St. Regis, visit-
ing on the way the scattered Catholics in various parts, saying
Mass, instructing, and baptizing.

In 1822 the Rev. Michael Carroll was pastor of Albany, visit-
ing also Troy, Lansingburg, Johnstown, and Schenectady. Since
then it has had a regular succession of pastors, many of them
men of remarkable devotedness and zeal. Just at the period of
Bishop Dubois' appointment, the Catholics of Albany were en-
deavoring to erect a new and larger church, but met with such
difficulties that they succeeded in completing it only by aid
which he obtained from the Association for the Propagation of
the Faith.* As his clergy increased, he placed pastors in the
neighboring cities, and the Rev. John Shanahan was for many
years the devoted pastor of Troy, visiting also Lansingburg,
where a number of Catholics had gathered.

About 1830 the Sisters of Charity came to Albany, and as-
sumed the charge of the orphan asylum and schools, which they
have continued to direct to the present time.

The Catholics in this diocese are more widely scattered than
in that of New York, and we find them from an early period
gathering at certain points, of which we shall give a few brief
notices before commencing an account of the labors of the amia
ble prelate who fills the See of Albany.

St. James' Church, at Carthage, was built in the year 1819 by
James Leray, Esq., a Catholic gentleman, who owned a large

* Annates de la Propagation de la Foi, iv. 451.

tfPSBHBi

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473

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

I' .

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property there, to which he drew many CathoHc settlers, who,
with their descendants, still occupy the spot, directed by a cler-
gyman brought up in their midst. Having had the advantage
of living together under the shadow of the Church, they are as
faithful to their religion as though they lived in the most favored
Catholic country. By their industry most are now easy farmers,
owning the greater part of two townships, and numbering about
ten thousand. Their schools, made up exclusively of (Catholics,
are well attended and well conducted.*

Utica was another point where the Catholics centered and
have increased prosperously. John C. Devereux, and his wife's
family, the Barrys, from Albany, settled here about 1800, and
were joined a few years later by Nicholas Devereux, whose recent
loss is so much deplored. This little band of Catholics seems to
have been first visited about 1813 or 1814 by a clergyman from
Albany, probably the Rev. Mr. McQuaid, and he certainly visited
them occasionally down to the period of his departure for Ire-
land. On Sundays the Catholics generally met to read Mass
prayers, though many attended Protestant meetings. At last, on
the 10th of January, 1819, after hearing Mass celebrated by the
Rev. Michael O'Gorman, the Catholics prepared to incorporate
themselves according to law, and on the 25 th, John O'Connor,
John C. Devereux and Nicholas Devereux of Utica, Morris Hogan
of New Hartford, Oliver Weston, Thomas McCarthy, and James
Lynch of Salina, John McGuire of Rochester, and Charles Car-
roll of Genesee River, were duly elected " Trustees of the First
Catholic Church in the Western District of New York." Pur-
chasing three lots of ground, they collected means and erected a
church, designed in very good taste, which cost about four thou-
sand dollars. The Devereux were the chief benefactors of it,
contributing more than a fourth of the amount, and many Prot-

* Information from Rev, M. E, Clark.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

473

31-9, who,

y a cler-
dvantage
jy are as
t favored
' farmers,
Qg about
^"latholics,

tered and
his wife's
1800, and
098 recent
seems to
man from
Illy visited
3 for Ire-
•ead Mas3
1 last, on
[cd by the
[Corporate
I'Connov,
•is Hogan
Ind James
irles Car-
the First
Pur-
jrected a
tur thou-
>rs of it,
.ny Prot-

cstants contributing liberally, for the number of Catholics was
small.

The first pastor at Utica was the Rev. John Farnan, who vis-
ited also the Catholics of Western New York, and even beyond
the frontier of the United States. St. James', at Carthage, was
also visited by him, and he attended the vai'ious stations along
the Erie Canal. His career here was not exemplary, and his
faculties were withdrawn. The Rev. Richard Bulger, a holy and
apostolic man, and the Rev. John Shanahan, whom we have seen
laboring at Troy, were next stationed at Utica, where the latter
is still remembeJ'ed for his zeal and disinterestedness. A number
of other clergymen followed, all for brief periods, inasmuch as
here, too, trustees claimed to hold all, and frequently deprived
the pastor of a competent support. By such ill-judged conduct
they deprived the Catholics of Utica of the Rev. Dr. Cummings
and Rev. James B. Cahill, two accomplished clergymen, who
came from France in 1830 in consequence of the revolution of
July, which raised Louis Philippe to the throne. The Rev. Wal-
ter J. Quarter, afterwards Administrator and Vicar-general of the
diocese of Chicago, at last became pastor, and first gave stability
to affairs at Utica; yet even then the trustees would not grant
any salary to his assistant, the Rev. Wm. Beecham.

In 1834 the Sisters of Charity, under Sister St. Etienne as
Sister Servant, came to Utica to take charge of an asylum and
girls' school, erected by the Messrs. Devereux at an expense of
nearly ten thousand dollars. They, on a subsequent occasion, by
a liberal yearly contribution, enabled the Sisters to remain when
want of support was compelling them also to retire.

The church at Utica proving too small, the Rev. Mr. Quarter,
in 1835, undertook the erection of a new one, in which he hap-
pily succeeded, Mass being said in the new edifice for the first
time on Christmas-day in the following year. Among the cler-
gymen who were from time to time assistants of Mr. Quarter

474

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

SI' T|S

I •

! ;i

ti:i

I ;

were two who ha\e since been raised to the episcopacy — the Rt
Kov. D. W. Bacon, now Bisliop of Portland, and the Kt. Rev.
John Loughlin, now Bishop of Brooklyn.

The Rev. Thomas Martin, of the Order of Preachers, was pas-
tor from 1841 to 1845, and distinguished himself by his zealous
etforts to put down intemperance, and for an earnest protest
against the intolerance of the State government, which forced the
employees in the State Lunatic Asylum to attend Protestant
worship. By this time many of the stations served from Utica
had become parishes, with churches and pastors of their own.*
Rome, visited in 1836 by the Rev. William Beecham, a graduate
of Carlo w College, had by 1840 exchanged the cooper's loft for
the modest church of St. Peter's, which became a centre from
which the pastor visited a district of a hundred miles around
him. Churches arose, too, at Verona, Oneida, Florence, Consta-
bleville, Waterville, and "West Utica, so that Central New York
began to blossom like a garden with the flowers of Catholic faith
and piety .f

Salina, now a part of Syracuse, had a church in 1829, due to
the exertions of James Lynch, Esq., and Thomas McCarthy, Esq.
It was occasionally attended from Utica till 1832, when the Rev.
Francis O'Donoghue was appointed the first resident pastor.
From 1839 it has been the field of the labors of the Rev. Michael
Heas, who has seen many others grow up around him. The
Catholics of Syracuse, among others, purchased a lot in 1842, to
which they removed an Episcopalian church similarly purchased.

By this time, too, Schenectady, Sandy Hill, Keeseville, Malone,
Binghamton, Little Falls, and Saratoga had their churches and
resident pastors ; and so extensive had become the followers of
Catholicity in that part of the State, that the Holy See resolved

* Memoir furnished by the kindness of the Rev. F. P. McFarland.
t Information derived from the Rev. Wm. Beecham, the pioneer pastor
of Rome.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

476

to erect that portion into a new diocese, the See of which ahould
be Albany. Tlio diocese is bounded on the north and east by
the Hniits of the State, and extends westward to the eastern
limits of Cayuga, Tompkins, and Tioga counties, and southward
to the forty-second degree.

The Rt. Rev. John McCloskey, born at Brooklyn, and actually
coadjutor of the Bishop of New York, was transferred in 1847 to
the new See of Albany, which he has ever since governed with
the greatest harmony and advantage to the cause of religion.
On taking possession of his See, Albany contained St. Mary's,
which became his cathedral, with three other churches, one of
them exclusively for the Germans. The orphan asylum of St.
Vincent had from about 1830 been under the charge of the Sis-
ters of Charity from Emmetsburg, who also directed a school for
girls. The remainder of his diocese contained about forty
churches and less than that number of clergymen. The zealous
prelate immediately devoted himself to the task of endowing his
diocese with all that the wants of the faithful required. This task
has been the more difficult, as the Catholics are scattered, few of
tliem wealthy, and prejudices against them more bitter than in
parts where Catholics and Protestants are constantly in contact
with each other. Under his impulse Jfroy founded an orphan
asylum confided to the Sisters of Charii.} . and in 1851 the bishop
had the happiness of securing the Brothers of the Christian
Schools, who opened at Troy the Academy of St. Joseph, and at
the same time assumed the direction of a second orphan asylum,
intended exclusively for boys.*

The Sisters of Ciiarity, thus relieved of a part of their labors,
sought a new field for their devotedness, and in the same year
opened a hospital, which has been of signal service to the city.

* It now contains 350 boys under tlie cliurgo of the Christian Brotliers;
the jrirls' school, under the charge of eight Sisters of Charity, has 350 girls
and 56 orphans.

470

THE CATHOLIC CHUllCU

t m

no less than seven lunulrod and ei^djty-uinc patients having been
received into it in one year.

Most of these creations are due, under the excellent bishop, to
the zeal, devotedness, and perseverance of the Kev. 1*. Haver-
mans, pastor of St. Mary's Ciiurch.

To give his diocese an institution in which young ladies
might obtain a higher degree of education than the schools
already in operation afforded. Bishop McCloskey applied, and
not inisuccessfully, to the Ladies of the Sacred Heart. A colony
of that order arrived in Albany in 1852, and opened an academy
in a central and agreeable position. The high standard of in-
struction afforded by these pious followers of the Sacred Heart
has here, as in all other parts, met with general appreciation.
The Brothers of the Christian Schools meanwhile extended the
institutions of their order in the diocese. In 1854 they assumed
the direction of a new asylum for boys, erected by the bishop on
a farm about a mile from his cathedral, and in the following
year opened a large academy at (Jtica, which cost over seven-
teen thousand dollars, and is due chiefly to the zealous exertions
of the late Nicholas Devereux of that city.

The churches and clergymen in the diocese have increased in
proportion to the other institutions. The churches now amount
to eighty-seven, with nine more in process of erection. The
clergy numbers seventy-four, among whom are, as we have seen,
several Fathers of the Society of Oblates of Mary Immaculate, in
charge of the French parishes in the north of the State, and
Fathers of the Society of Jesus, who direct St. Joseph's Church
at Troy and ro German church at Syracuse.

The Congregation of Missionaries (Oblates) was founded in
1815 at Aix, in Provence, by the Rev. Charles Joseph Eugene
Mazenod, now Bishop of Marseilles. Feeling himself called to de-
vote himself to the spiritual service of the poor and prisoners, he
began regular instructions in the churches and visits to the

IN THE UNITED STATES.

4T7

prisons. Others soon joinod liiin, and in order to consolidate tlio
work, he drew up constitutions and rules. The fathers behold
in these the will of God, and applied themselves to attain reli-
gious perfection by close adherence to tliein. Tlio prelates of
Provence and Dauphiny all approved the new institute, and urged
the founder to solicit the confirmation of his rule by the Holy
Sec. After a long examination by a congregation of cardinals,
Pope Leo XII. solemnly approved the institute and rule on the
I7th of April, 1820, and the missionaries received from the Holy
Father himself tlie name of Oblate Missionaries of Mary con-
ceived without sin. Letters apostolic, by an exception made in
their favor, were issued on the 21st of March in the same year,
canonically establishing the congregation.

Their objects are, parish missions, the direction of theological
seminaries, the spiritual direction of young men, the poor, prison-
ers, and those in special need of instruction ; and lastly, the for-
eign missions. Like the Society of Jesus, they place their ser-
vices iu a special manner at the command of the Vicar of Jesus
Christ, and are ever ready to repair to any part of the world for
the good of religion.

The Congregation had spread to various parts of France,
Switzerland, Savoy, and Sardinia, when, in 1841, the Right Rev.
Ignatius Bourget, Bishop of Montreal, solicited a colony for his
diocese. While the order afterwards spread rapidly in Europe,
it assuitied a no less remarkable development in America. A
novitiate was opened at Montreal, which many devoted clergy-
men entered, and ere long the Oblate missionaries were directing
institutions of learning, and exercising the holy ministry wherever
the need was the greatest. The Indian missions especially at-
tracted them, and from the Saguenay to the Pacific they may
now be found, laboring to evangelize the aborigines. Already
has this new order furnished the ancient Church of Canada
with two zealous prelates. Of their entrance into New Ycik,

478

THE CATHOLIC CIIUIICII

! I!

'. '

wi':

if' ^f

if. I

h ■

i I
! S
■ I

and their hibora atuong tlio lui"sakeu Canadians, wo have aht'adjr
spoken.*'

Bt'ibro leaving the dioceso of Albany, wo cannot omit re-
counting a conversion which brought many Protestants of Onon-
daga into tho Churcii. Syracuse, tlio chief phice of the county,
numbered among its earliest, and still among its most influential
residents, the families of Lynch and McCarthy, by whoso zeal
chiefly the house of God has been erected and upheld. Yet
Catholicity was all but unknown. One evening in the spring of
1830, an Irish peddler, urging his horse and wagon through tho
miry roads, broke down not far from the house of Colonel

D , a wealthy farmer, near Pompey. With tho friendly

feeling usual in tho country, the colonel went out to offer his as-
sistance ; but it was evident that the harness needed repairs,
which would detain him till morning. He accordingly invited
the peddler to pass the night there : tho latter accepted the kindly
welcome, and after stabling his horse, entered the house. Sup-
per was scarcely ended, when Mrs. began to feel anxious

about his remaining; for tho man was Irish, evidently, and prob-
ably a Catholic. The peddler, little aware of the terror he was
causing, freely avowed his faith, and now nothing could exceed
the distress of the gentleman and his wife. Too good-hearted to
turn the man out, they prepared themselves for some terrible
mishap. The colonel talked with him for a time on religious
matters, but the peddler was not able to give such explanations
as ho needed. When bedtime came, he was carefully, but si-
lently, locked in the kitchen, and the family retired to imeasy
beds. On departing the next morning, after having repaired the

accident, the peddler offered Mr. D a small book on the

Catholic religion, which, with some others, formed part of his
stock ; and, thanking him for his hospitality, journeyed on. The

* Annalea de la Propagation de la Foi, xii. 281.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

470

0 ftln'ft<ly

omit ve-

of Ouoti-
le county,
influential
irhoso zeal
K,ia. Yet
3 sprii>g of
irough tho
jf Colonel
le friendly
)ffer his as-
led repairs,
igly invited

1 the kindly
:)use. Sup-
eel anxious

, and prob-
rror he was
uld exceed
ll-hearted to
Imc terrible
n religious
xplauations
illy, but si-
to uneasy
paired the
,ok on the
part of his
Id on. The

colonel rend the book, and was tillod with surprise and nstonisli-
ment : ho inducod his wife to take it up ; she was no less
amazed. Catholicity, as Catholics know and practise it, was,
she saw, as dilForcnt from Catholicity portrayed by Prottistant
ministers and tracts, as day is from night. When the peddler
returned, they took such other books as he had, and finding, in
tho end of one, a catalogue of Catholic books, they ordered them
from New York. Conviction began to dawn upon their minds
that tho Reformation was a mere human act, entirely unauthor-
ized by any divine commission, and completely at variance with
Christ's promises. They consulted the Presbyterian minister to
whose church they had belonged, but were "o far from being
satisfied with his explanations, that they lost no occasion of
proving to their neighbors that the Reformation was all wrong.
Provoked at this, the minister had them both arraigned for here-
sy, and formally cut off from the communion of the Presbyterian
Church.

They now entered into correspondence with a Catholic clergy-
man, and all doubts being soon cleared away, they were baptized
at Utica, on Christmas-diiy, 1836. Many other members of their
family and neighbors imitated their example, and in less than a
year sixteen persons abjured Protestant i'^m, and embraced the
faith. Others have since joined this nucleus of the faithful ; and
thus, by a special providence of God, a number of Protestants,
amid a population embittered against Catholics by prejudices
and falsehoods, which designing men even now, in the light of
boasted freedom, are not ashamed to perpetuate, were led, with-
out even hearing tho words of a priest, into the very Church of
Christ.*

On the division of the State, a See was fixed also at Buffalo,
with a diocese comprising Cayuga, Tompkins, and Tioga coun-

* Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, xii. 281.

mtti

480

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

i i

! I

liJ

.11 ij:

mil

III

ties, and all those west of them. To fill this See, the choice of
the Holy See fell upon the Rev. John Timon, a priest of the
Congregation of the Missions. Born in Missouri, he at an early
age entered the novitiate at the Barrens, and while still a divinity
student, commenced a public course of controversy in reply to
the attacks of some Protestant clergymen.* Soon after his or-
dination, when the Rev. Mr. Green, a Protestant minister, inter-
fered between him and a poor culprit whom he had converted
and baptized, he challenged the minister to a public discussion,
and completely silenced him.f His missionary career was most
varied , and Texas, especially, may regard him as the founder of
its present Catholic establishments, while hardly a city of the
West has not felt the effect of his missions and retreats.^ At
the time of his nomination to the See of Buffalo, he was Visitor
of his Congregation in the United States, and had twice assisted
as Superior in the sessions of the Provincial Councils at Balti-
more.§ He was consecrated at New York on the 17th of Octo-
ber, 184*7, and on the 23d arrived in Buffalo, accompanied by
the Right Rev. Bishops Hughes, Walsh, and McCloskey. Here
he was enthusiastically received by a large body of Catholics,
who escorted their prelate in procession to the Church of St.
Louis, where he bestowed upon them his episcopal benedic-
tion.ll

The portion committed to his care was the last settled in the
State, and Catholicity is there of more recent date. The old
French fort at Niagara, begun originally in December, 1678, by
the celebrated explorer. La Salle, as one of his line of posts, had
been more or less regularly attended by chaplains from that
date. It was visited, in 1679, by the romantic Father Hennepin,
of the Order of Recollects, or Reformed Franciscans, and by the

* Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, ii. 365.

X Id., xii. 34, 279 ; xv. 365.

I Concilia Boltimori habita, 211-238.

t Id., V. 595.
i Id., xxi. 81.

■i

IN THE UNITED STATES.

481

jhoice of
st of the
an early
a divinity
1 reply to
ter his or-
ster, inter-
converted
discussion,
r was most
I founder of
city of the
:reats.t ^.t
-was Visitor
vice assisted
ils at Balti-
rth of Octo-
mpanied by
jskey. Here
)f Catholics,
lurch of St.
,a\ benedic-

Lttled in the
L The old
|er, 16l8,by
pf posts, had
[is from that
er Hennepin,
L and by the

It Id., V. 595.
Id., xxi. 81.

)'■

still more distiniruished Fathers Gabriel do la Kibourde and
Zenobe Membre, of the same order, both martyrs to their zeal in
endeavoring- to plant the faith amid the wilderness.* Here, on
his departure for the AVest, La Salle left as chaplain another
Recollect, Father Melithon Wattcau, with a small party. Hither
La Salle returned on foot, baffled, but not discouraged, in April,
1680; and he set out from it again in 1G82, on his memorable
expedition, which had the glory of first descending the Missis-
sippi to its mouth. On the disastrous end of La Salle, his post
at Niagara was abandoned, and the Jesuit missionaries in the
Seneca country, of whom we have spoken elsewhere, were the
only priests c^ Catholicity in Western New York. In 1687, the
Marquis de Denonville, in spite of the protests of Governor Don-
gan, took possession of the spot in July, and began to rebuild
the fort. Denonville had just returned from his expedition
against the Senecas, and restored Niagara, as a check upon them.
The Jesuit Father John de Lamberville was the first chaplain of
the new fort, having reached it in September, 1687. But the
garrison, closely blockaded by the Indians, was attacked by the
scurvy, and the missionary, sick himself, was dragged on the ice
to Fort Frontenac, which he reached almost in a dying condi-
tion. He was succeeded by Father Peter Milet, who remained
till the evacuation of the fort in September, 1688. The official
account of the commandant at that time states that he demol-
ished the ramparts, leaving the houses and cabins, in order to
prove possession, and, in the midst of the fort, a cross eighteen
feet high, which the officers had planted on Good Friday, after
it had been solemnly blessed by Father Milet. This cross bore
the inscription, " Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus im-
perat ;" and it remained to foretell the future triumphs of reli-
gion, where, almost beneath its shadow, now rises the noble

* Shea, History of tlie Catholic Missions, 412, 484.
21

482

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

ill

II : I

M:i

Cathedral of Buffalo. The chaplain's cabin is thus described :
" The Rev. Father Milet's cabin, furnished with its chimney, win-
dows and sashes, shelves, a bedstead and four boards arranged
inside, with a door furnished with its fastenings and hinges, the
whole cabin being made of twenty-four boards."*

In 1721 the French resumed possession of Niagara, which they
held till the fatal battle in which the gallant Aubry was defeated,
in his attempt to relieve it. The fort then surrendered, in 1759.
During this interval of thirty-eight years, the fort had undoubt-
edly a Recollect chaplain, because the king assigned one to every
fort holding over forty men, and the garrison at Niagara always
exceeded that number. We do not, however, find any mention-
ed by name, except the celebrated Father Emmanuel Crespel ;
and the register of the fort is unfortunately lost, having probably
been carried to Albany after the surrender.f

The Revolution checked the progress of settlements in that
part, and emigration did not revive till the close of the century.
The number of Catholics who settled here continued to be very
small for many years ; and these were long without a pastor. It
was not till Bishop Connolly took possession that a priest was
stationed in this part of New York; and, strange as it may
appear, the first pastor sent to seek out the strayed sheep in
that district is still alive, and in the exercise of the ministry.
This is the Rev. Patrick Kelly, who, sent to the West, erected,
about 1820, St. Patrick's Church in Rochester, then a small vil-

•( il;,:!

I '9m
i Wi

* Documentary History of New York, i. 243-275. Colonial Documents,
ix. 887.

t Father Emmanuel Crespel, of the Order of St, Francis, came to Canada
in 1728, was chaplain at Crown Point, and then at Niagara. He also visited
Detroit, and attended an expedition against the Fox Indians in Wisconsin,
in 1728. He set sail for Europe in 1742, but was wrecked at the mouth of
the St. Lawrence. Those who reached the shore, almost all perished of
cold or hunger. Father Crespel survived, and on his return to Europe, pub-
liAhed an account of hi^ travels, which is remarkably interesting.

'Mm

as described :
jhimney, win-
irds arranged
d hinges, the

•a, which they
was defeated,

ered, in 1759.

had undoubt-

1 one to every

I iagara always
any mention-

inuel Crespel ;

,ving probably

ments in that
»f the century,
ued to be very
t a pastor. It
it a priest was
ige as it may
■ayed sheep in
[ the ministry.
West, erected,
en a small vil-

jnial Documents,

9, came to Canada
I. He also visited
ans in Wisconsin,
. at the mouth of
st all perished of
rn to Europe, pub-
esting.

IN THE UNITED STATES. ^gg

>« >829, but blessed the groundl; sTt "" "■""'* '" ^"f"'"
i>m by William B. Lo CouCk^ ±"" '"""'''' ^«» to
too, " I found seven or It tS*. rT"'" ""^ ""'^' «' "-
<i.a"s,S„is^and Irish, insmr''* ^'^^h, Cana-
ed. Although I did n t u™d^'"'^" ' '"'"' ^"'^ "f"™-
ao confessions of t„o hund^ d s^"™^?' ^ ""' ""'^od to hear
English nor French. These InJ""'' 7^" ™d«rBtood neither
P-^iWo joy at being^Salld ? '"" t"^"""''' » ™-
celebrated a solemn mZ in tb "Pf T •" ""^ ^""^-^^ts. I

J^dredCatholicsandCtlltb """•"'•" """' -gh
^- erected on the vC^Z^Z^^- ^■""'^ ^"^
The presence of a bishoi, tb. Tf ■'"'^^^^ "^"^b sat

'Jo number of com^n Ln^t !''»V' '"^ ^oly Saerilic^
chant, the administration Tf .he 'l f """ «™"'^ »' "«'
confe„ed on thirty „r forty nl"* "' ^"P"""' -^ich I
tion."t ^ f^'^™' P'-xluced a general emo-

In 1834, twelve rears l.t..
Catholicity, that we'ContC n ".'I ""^" '""^ P™S-ss of
- -w the diocese of Buff^ T ""^" ^P'o^od in what
Mer.^ and the Rev. Bernard oJm T. ""^ Rev. Nicholas
"vo of Germany, ordained in bt1,ai " *** ''^ " "-

'eceived into the diocese of Babim '""""^ '» ''9', but

".v whom he was always mur ''' ''"''°'' •'''™"-

^mt fifteen years at BZLZtZT':'. "" ""'•^'"^<'- He ■

-erofhi^ C:ir :rii,:

AnuaJes de la Propagalion de ,„ Foi, iv. 455.

mh^mmi

t'i !; I

'^ 'III

481

THE CATHOLIC ClIUKCII

with the most untiling zciil fVoni the year 1829 till his death, on
the 10th of August, 1844, when lie expired, at the age of eighty-
one.*

Tho Eev. Bernard O'Reilly, whose loss in the ill-fated Pacific
all are now deploring, was connected with the church at Roches-
ter from about 1832 till the period of his nomination to the
episcopal See of Ilartford. In that city his zeal and labors were
untiring ; and most of the institutions there, of which we shall
have occasion to sjjeak hereafter, are due to his energy and devo-
tedness.

In 1835, Williamsville had as pastor the Rev. Mr. Wyatt, fol-
lowed soon by the Rev. Mr. Schneider, who long labored here.
Auburn, too, had a pastor, in 1834, in the person of the Rev. J.
O'Donoghue, who purchased a small Methodist meeting-house,
and made it the first Catholic church in the place. But during
the effervescence of minds at that time, the presence of a cler-
gyman was so disliked, that a young man was surprised in the
act of setting fire to the church while the poor and scanty con-
gregation were assembled in it.f In 1838, Eden and Lockport
had also their pastors, and the Germans had erected at Rochester
a church, attended by Father Joseph Frost and Father Simon
Sanderl, both of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer,
who thus inaugurated the missions of their order in Western
New York, which have continued to the present time, and been
fruitful in good. They have also a large and still more flourish-
ing church of their order at Rochester, where four Fathers are
constantly employed in the ministry.

Other churches arose at other points, and when the diocese
was divided, the Right Rev. Bishop found, on taking possession
of his See, eighteen clergymen in the district committed to his

* Catholic Almanac, 1S45, p. 179.
+ Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, viii. 254.
O'Flaherty.

Letter of Eev. P,

(I jiil^i:;:

L'T THE UNITED STATES.

485

Icatli, on
)f eighty-

jd Pacific
,t Roches-
)n to the
ibors were
li \vc shall
and devo-

Wyatt, fol-
3ored here,
the Rev. J.
cting-honse,
But during
e of a cler-
n'ised in the
scanty con-
hd Locliport
,t Rochester
iither Simon
Redeemer,
in AVestern
fie, and been
lOve flourish-
Fathers are

the diocese

lo- possession

litted to his

care, three churches in Buffalo, four in Rochester, and churches
or stations in every county. Rochester also possessed an orphan
asylum, under the care of the Sisters of Charity of St. Jo-
seph, founded in 1845, and an academy, conducted by the same
Sisters.

Bishop Timon began his administration like a veteran mis-
sionary. On the 21st of November, 1847, less than a month
after his arrival, he consecrated the Church of St. Louis, and
confirmed over two hundred persons. He then proceeded to
Rochester, where he gave a retreat, preaching three times a day,
and making two meditations for the people, spending the rest of
his time in the confessional. The next month he gave retreats
in Java and Buffalo ; in January, at Lockport. Besides these
labors, he preached, instructed, and gave confirmation at Attica,
Geneva, Ithaca, Elmira, and Scio, besides visiting the prisoners
at Auburn, where, of over four hundred, he found only twenty-
eight Catholics.*

One of his earliest plans was the foundation of a college ; and
in 1848 the Rev. Julian Delauno, late President of St. Mary's
College, Kentucky, opened, under the auspices of the bishop, the
College of the Sacred Heart at Rochester; but it met with difficul-
ties, and closed in 1852. Another institution, St. Joseph's Col-
lege at Buffalo, was opened in 1849, and conducted for a time
by secular priests and the seminarians of the diocese ; but this
being found a plan attended with much difficulty, the college
was, in the year 1851, committed to the care of the Oblate
Fathers. Those Fathers conducted it until the year 1855, when
it was found necessary to suspend it, to the great regret of the
bishop.

The foundation of a hospital at Buftalo was attended with
happier results. It was confided to the care of the Sisters of

Iter

of Eev. P.

* Annalos de la Propagation de la Foi, xxi. 31.

486

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

!:'!

II I;' i¥4

Charity, who won the admiration and confidence of the commu-
nity ; so much so, indeed, that a Protestant clergyman by the
name of Lord thought that his creed was in danger, and by
anonymous communications in the papers, or articles over vari-
ous letters of the alphabet, endeavored to create prejudice
against the hospital, and excite suspicion in the minds of his
fellow-citizens. The Very Rev. Bernard O'Reilly came out in
reply, and forced Mr. Lord to throw off the mask. A long con-
troversy ensued, in which the endeavors of Mr. Lord to escape
rather justly prejudiced all honest men against himself.* In-
stead of injuring the hospital, this attack added to its popularity.
Up to December, 1851, twenty-four hundred persons were re-
ceived into the hospital, most of whom, but for the care thus
afforded them, would have sunk to their graves. A medical
journal, edited by a Protestant physician, said, " The fact that
the services of these intelligent, educated, and pious Sisters are
bestowed without compensation, contributes greatly to the econ-
omy of the institution ; but apart from this, the same capabili-
ties and fidelity could not be purchased by any pecuniary con-
siderations. No salary, however great, could afford a substitute
for motives derived from the religious obligations which urge
those devoted females to consecrate their lives to the oflBces of
charity."f

The exertions of the bishop in the cause of education were
not confined to the colleges : he sought to endow his diocese
with a house of religious women devoted to the highest order of
teaching, and rejoiced to find that the Ladies of the Sacred
Heart were able and willing to aid him. A colony, accordingly,
came from Manhattanville in 1849, and founded a convent of

* Discussion relative to the Buffalo Hospital of the Sisters of Charity,
between the Kev. John C. Lord and the Very Eev. B, O'Keilly, 72 pp. Buf-
falo, 1850.

+ See Second General Eeport of the Buffalo Hospital, Buffalo, 1852.

; 11

IN THE UNITED STATES.

487

their order in Buffalo, which was in 1855 transferred to Roches-
ter, as a more central point for their academy.

Besides these institutions, the untiring bishop established a found-
ling hospital and asylum for widows, and has within the last year
introduced the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, a colony of the
original order, as founded by Father Eudes, in 1645. They have
not yet been enabled to open a penitent asylum, and are labor-
ing under great difficulties ; but the devoted pastor will overcome
all obstacles to his good works. The Sisters who founded this
convent, the first of their order in the United States, were Sister
Mary de St. Jerome Tourneny, as Superior, Sisters Mary de St.
Etienne Vardey and Sister Mary de St. Cyr Corbin, with the lay-
Sister Mary of St. Martin : they were a filiation from the con-
vent of Rennes, and arrived in Buffalo on the 1st of June,
1855.

These are not the only accessions within the last year : the
Brothers of the Holy Infancy of Jesus have been introduced to
direct the boys' orphan asylum ; and the Sisters of St. Bridget,
an order founded about the middle of the last century in Ireland,
by the Right Rev. Dr. Lanigan, in honor of the Virgin Patroness
of the island, now devote themselves to the instruction of poor
girls at Buffalo and Rochester.

The impulse given by the good bishop was felt in other parts
of the diocese, and the zealous pastor of Canandaigua, the Rev.
E. O'Connor, whom we find laboring in the diocese in 1848,
and at Canandaigua since 1851, resolved, after erecting chapels
at the most important points around him,* to give his parish
such establishments of mercy as would perpetuate the faith.
The religious order to which he applied was the Sisters of St.
Joseph, who had a house at St. Louis and in other cities of thd
Union. Of the origin of this order we have given an account

* Bloomfield aad Lusbville.

1^ 1

j; ,Hi

!, Sii

I "i; IB

- 11

488

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

when speaking of the diocese of Philiidelphia, and need not re-
peat it here. On the 8th of Deceinbor, 1854, the very day when
all the Christian world exulted, by its representative bishops at
Home, on the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Con-
ception by his Holiness Pope Pius IX., a colony of the Sisterg
of St. Joseph arrived at Canandaigua from St. Louis. Mother
Agnes, the Superior, had as companions Sisters Frances, Joseph,
Theodosia, and Petronilla, followed by two others from St. Louis
and one from Philadelphia. Devoting themselves to the various
good Avorks contemplated by their rule, they opened an acade-
my, which is numerously attended, and enables the Sistera to un-
dertake other works of mercy. Besides an orphan asylum, they
have a Home for poor girls of good character, when out of place,
or overtaken by sickness. This latter object, peculiar to this
Home, is the more essential, as, from the absence of a hospital,
the poor girl had previously no .alternative but the poorhouse.

As the Sisters have opened a novitiate, and already had postu-
lants, there is every prospect that the order is firmly planted at
Canandaigua.*

While this order was thus diffusing the odor of sanctity
around Canandaigua, the western part of New York beheld the
Eecollects once more return to the scene of their early labors.
Nicholas Devercux, Esq., of Utica, owned a large tract in Alle-
ghany and Cattaraugus counties, to which he had endeavored to
draw Catholic settlers, facilitating in every way the erection of
churches and establishing of missions. But the progress of
Catholicity did not correspond to his zealous wishes, and hav-
ing visited Rome in 1854, applied to the Irish College of St.
Isidore for Fathers of the Order of St. Francis to found a mis-
sion in New York, offering five thousand dollars and two hundred
acres of land for the new convent. He wished seven Fathers in

* Letter of Rev. E. O'Connor. Notice in the Buffalo Sentinel.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

489

d not re-
lay when
is hops at
hite Con-
lie Sisters
Mother
9, .Joseph,
St. Louis
le various
m acade-
ere to un-
liim, they
t of phice,
ir to this

hospital,
house,
ad postu-

anted at

sanctity

iheld the

ly labors.

; in Alle-

vored to

ction of

ress of

nd hav-

e of St.

a inis-

iundred

1th ers in

order to begin the mission, but as there were not so many able
to s])eak Englisli who could be sent, it was resolved to defer the
intended colony for two years. The Right Rev. Bishop of Buf-
falo was, however, in Rome, and, from his zeal, objected to any
such delay. On this, some of the Fathers so earnestly besought
the General of the order for permission to go and restore the
Franciscan order in that part of the world, where their own
brethren' had been the first apostles, that he consented, and the
Fathers received all due faculties.

Of this new colony of Recollects, Father Pamphilus de Mag-
liano is the Gustos, or Superior, having under him Father
Sixtus de Gagliano, Father Samuel da Prezza, and the lay-
brother, Salvador de Manarola. They are all Recollects, or
Reformed Franciscans, of the same family as the early missiona-
ries of Canada, and the chaplains whom we have had occasion
to mention.*

Two of the Fathers were professors of theology at or near
Rome, the Superior at the Irish College, Father Sixtus at the
convent of St. Bernardine, at U rbino ; Father Samuel was at the
. College San Pietro Montorio, in Rome, having just completed his
studies. Father Pamphilus and Father Sixtus had long nour-
ished a desire of devoting themselves to the foreign missions, and
had selected the United States as their chosen field of hibor ; so
much so, that a few days before Mr. Devereux's application, they
had declined an invitation to proceed to Buenos Ayres.

With the blessing of the Holy Father, and authority to cstab-
hsh a province of their order, they left Rome on the 9th of

* The Franciscans, or Friars Minor, comprise, 1st, Tlie Observantines, tlie
Recollects, and Alctilitarines, who number about ninety thousand, and are
subject to the Minister-general of the Order of Minors. The present Gen-
eral is Father Venantius da Celano, a Kocollect. '2d, Tiie Capucins. 3d, The
Conventuals. 4th, The Tertiaries : the last three having each a General of
their own. The Capueins number about forty thousand, the Conventuals
seven thousand, aud the Tertiaries a number almoil uicalculuble.

21*

490

THE CATHOLIC

CHURCH

•

';! May,
ceode

185

6, and i

•caching New Yo

rk on the 19th of Juno,

pro*

d to Ellicottsville, where they

began their labors.

con-

vent

and

college

will soon arise in Allegany

City, who

nco

the

I! I '

Fathers will minister to the Catholics in all the adjoining coun-
try.* Already have their labors been fruitful : everywhere, in-
deed, have the good Fathers of St. Francis, as humble and gentle
as their martyred brother. Father Zenobe Membro, or the aged
Gabriel de la Ribourdc, won the confidence and affection of all.
As their numbers increase, Canada will doubtless too claim a
house of the order of her sainted Caron.f

Only one difficulty troubled the administration of Bishop
Timon, and this arose in the Church of St. Louis. The ground
for that church had been deeded to Bishop Dubois, at the time
of his visit to Buffalo in 1820, by Louis Le Couteulx, Esq. Grad-
ually the church had been erected, and a body of trustees or-
ganized, under the general law of the State. To them the
administration of the church was transferred, the bishop having
full confidence in their integrity as men, and fidelity tis Catholics.
This hope was, however, delusive : ere long they began to usurp
powers not their own ; and on the issuing of the pastoral letter
of the Right Rev. Bishop Hughes, after the Diocesan Synod in
1842, the trustees of St. Louis's Church peremptorily refused to
submit to the regulations contained in it. These regulations re-
quired every church to act under its pastor, subject to the ulti-
mate decision of the ordinary in the appointment of teachers,
sexton, organists, choir, and other persons employed in the house
of God. It also subjected the expenditures of the church funds
to the supervision of the pastor and bishop, and required the ac-
counts to be open to th(;ir inspection. By the terms of the pas-
toral, any church refusing to submit to these regulations within

* Letter of Father Magliano.

t See History of the Catholic Misaions.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

491

six months, was to be deprived of a pastor. The Church of St.
Louis, notwithstanding the refusal of the trustees, was not de-
prived by the bishop of its pastor, but the trustees and their
adherents compelled the Rev. Mr. Pax to quit his post and leave
the country.*

The bishop declined to put another clergyman at their mercy,
but sent two priests, who erected a new church, leaving that of
St. Louis closed. On the next visitation of his diocese by Bishop
Hughes, he received the voluntary submission of the schismatic
trustees, who agreed to observe the regulations of the pastoral.
A priest was again placed there, and, as we have seen, the Right
Rev. Bishop Timon consecrated the church soon after his arrival,
on being informed that the title of the church was in the bishop.
The trustees, however, soon resumed their usurpation, and the
pastor publicly insulted, menaced, and ordered by a daring mi-
nority to quit, withdrew, bearing with him the Blessed Sacra-
ment. A new church was begun for the faithful part of the con-
gregation, as before.f

The trustees still maintained their opposition, however, and
appealed to the Holy See. As the Supreme PontiflF was just
about to send to this country, for the first time, a Nuncio, in the
person of the Archbishop of Thebes, the Most Reverend Cajetan
Bedini, he confided to him, among other things, the considera-
tion of the case. In a long and able letter, that eminent prelate,
on the 25th of October, 1853, discussed the whole question, and
showed them that the canons of the Church were imperative,
and that the charter under which they claimed, being merely
permissive, must be construed so as not to conflict with theiif
duty as Catholics. " The privilege which the civil law grants W
permissive ; you may use it, or not. It is your duty to consult
the principles of your faith, to ascertain when and how you

* Brooksiana, p. 68.

t Reply to Mr. Babcook'a Speech, p. 5.

402

THE CATUOLIC CHUIICH

I ',

I' vm

f: , '. ll

i i 11 :

ouglit to use it."*' Having shown thorn that (ho mimiigcnioiit of
tlio pious oll't-riiigH hohdiyvd to tho hisliop, .»i» thoy wore ?nado
for tho support ot'diviiio worship, whicli clorgyrrn n appoinlocl hy
him aloiio <;ould porfortii, ho urgod thom to coinply with the
wishes of their prohito ; but thoy obstiiiat-ly rofusod, rojcctitig
the decision of tlic very tribuntil to which thoy appoahjd.

Tho good bishop did not despair, and tho Kov. Father Frnwcis
X. Woniiiger, a distinguislied Jesuit missionary, luivinnf "'I'tired
to preach a retreat tliere, the bishop cheerfully coiistuted, ai.''
the erring men at last yielded, and once more enabi' i •' o Holy
pacritico to be oft'ered in the church.

The diocese of Buffalo, so poorly provitlcd witli uiissionarii-s
when the untiring bishop was promoted to th*; See, so destitute
of those institutions of charity and education needed above ail in
a country where education and benevolence are a mask for pros-
elytizing error, is now one of tho most richly endowed in tho
country. It contains one hundred and twoiity churches and
chapels, a huilied other stations, seventy-eight priests, inclu-
ding, besides ihe secular clergy, Jesuits, Uedemptorists, Oblates,
and Franciscans, a theological seminary, five orphan asylums, a
Home for the innocent, a Refuge for tlio penitent, a hospital for
the sick, and schools directed by Sisters of St. Joseph, St. Bridget,
Notre Dame, and Charity.

Brooklyn. — The last diocese in New York formed by tho
Holy See is that of Brooklyn, comprising the whole of Long
Island, an island named by the ^ ily <"'atliolic discoverers the
Isle of the Hoh Ypostles. The ef^stei ' ^ ■ 'on was 'ed from
New England, the western by th. '( 'i„jh lU early times, and few
Catholics have settled there. Brooklyn, from a mere suburb of
New York, has grown within a few years to be one of the largest

"• Letter of the Most Kev. Arclibishop of Thebes, in New York Freeman's
Journal, November 5, 1853.

1^ THE UNITED STATES.

403

>nu!iit. o?
re inndo
inlotl l»y
,vith tho
lojecting

r Frniu'is

g c>ir<!re<.l
iteci, aii'l
iliO Holy

ssionariL'S
I destituto
»()vc all ill
c for pros-
ed in tho
relies and
sts, inclu-
5, Oblates,
isylums, a
)si>ital for
. Bridget,

|d by tlio
of Long
fevers tho
'.ed troui
and few
Isuburb of
lie largest

Freeman's

citicp in Ain»!ri* a, »iid much of its jN»j)ulation coo«i»t« of i'atho-
licH. In IH'J'J, tlieru was ttot f* rutliulic churrli on ihf Islano.
Tlii^ next yu:ir, St. Jaine-Vs t'liunli, in Juy-stroet, was t'^•(.•ted,
luuK'r the auHjiices of Hisliop Connolly ; and htro, in Sept!*»uL'«MV
1823, on a \'v\\ boards cliuiisil) juit lv)gL':lier for an altar, lik^
Ilev. John Slmnahan said his Hrst Nhtss. 'I'lu) first pcniiiMnc-nt
j)astor here wa» tho K(!V. .lulin W'rtlsli, wlio may bo consid' red
tho founder of the mission, luivinif labored here canieKtly " »r
many years. In 1837 the Kev. Mr. BnidU'V visited Flu '.iiiir a> '
Williamsbuig, which, with Staten Island, formed his parisli.
The ne.vt year, Brooklyn had a seccad <hurch ; and three yesrn
after, the Kev. .lames O'Donuell ercc;. d St. MaryV, at Williams-
burg, ft »mall frame, which has aineo been replaced by lh<'
Church of St. IVter and St. ]*aui!, thn ugh the exertions of the
Kev. S. !Malone ; and the zealous Rev. \lr. Uatieim-r reared tho
Churcdi of the Holy Trinity for his (iernian countrymen. But
even these churches were not suiKcient. In the following year,
the Kev. D. W. ]iacon, \vhon» wo have sen on the nussi">n at
Utica, and wlio now fills tho See of I'ortlai d, purchased a biiild-
ing which a priest had, in a moment of in.- ibordination, erected
as an Independent Catholic Church. This, dedicated to tho
worship of God, became the Church of tlit' Assumption, 'ilio
Protestant Episcopal Church of Kinmanuel 1 ecame the Church
of St. Charles Borronieo about the time tha' Bishop Ives, wlu»
had there ordained the Rev. Donald McLeod, •ocame, with that
gentleman, a submissive child of tho Catholic (. lurch.

When the Holy See resolved to erect Long hland into a dio-
cese, it called to the episcopate, as Bishop of \\\< oklyu, the Very
Rev. John Loughlin, for many years Vicar-general of the diocese
of New York, and well known in the city of N* w York for his
devoteduess as a pastor in that most trying of : 11 missions, an
extensive parish in a crowded city. Educated at the Seminary
of Mount St, Mary's, he had been exercising the holy ministry

494

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

J f

Ui : il-l

in New York from 1841. He was consecrated by the Most Rev-
erend Cajetan Bedini, Nuncio of His Holiness, at St. Patrick's
Cathedral, on the 30th of October, 1853, at the same time as
the Right Rev. James R. Bayley, Bishop of Newark, and the
Right Rev. Louis de Goesbriand, Bishop of Burlington. The
new prelate immediately took possession of his diocese, which
then contained, in Brooklyn and Williamsburg united, ten church-
es, and in the rest of the island eleven, with seven stations, the
whole attended by a body of twenty-three priests. To aid them
there were two orphan asylums, one directed b}' the Sisters of
Charity, who had been laboring in Brooklyn from 1836, having
charge both of the asylum and the free-schools for girls. The
Christian Brothers had, however, within a year or two assumed
the direction of the free-school at St. James's Church.

The bishop zealously applied himself to afford his flock the
advantages for education and aid which their condition required.
He purchased a house for a colony of Dominican nuns, which the
Very Rev. Mr. Raffeiner had previously procured from Bavaria.
In September, 1855, the prelate also obtained some Visitation
nuns of the house at Baltimore. These then founded, with
Mother Juliana Mathews as Superior, the first monastery in N(nv
York of the order planted in America by the venerable Alice
Lalor. Their academy is already in a prosperous condition, and
will supply a want which Brooklyn has long felt.

The good bishop was no less successful in his appeal to the Sis-
teis of Mercy at New York, who in the same year, under Mother
Vince'^* Hciire, founded the convent of St. Francis Assisium, and
having obtained a delightful house for the purpose, now devote
themselves to all the works which their rule contemplates.

Newark. — The State of New Jersey, forming the diocese of
Newark, had been confided to the care of the Right Rev. James
Roosevelt Bayley, born at New York ; and though a nephew, on
his fatlier's side, of the venerable Mother Seton, and even con-

Eev-

■ick's
le as
I the

The
vhich
lui'ch-
is, the

them

Lers of

aavhig

The

asumed

ock the
jquired.
ich the
kivaviii.
sitation
}, with

0 Alieo
lou, aud

Ithe Sis-
iMothcr
|im, aud
devote

icese of

James

[lew, on

ju con-

IN THE UNITED STATES.

495

nected with the family of Dongan, Earl of Limerick, the Catho-
lic governor of Ne^\ York, he was born and brought iip in the
Protestant religion, and resolved to enter the ministry as an
Episcopalian clergyman. He was stationed for some years at
Harlem, where he witnessed the faith and piety of the Irish
Catholic laborers, who ever found in him a kind and generous
friend. Early led to doubt the propriety of the Reformation, he
proceeded to Rome, and there, convinced of the necessity of em-
bracing the one true faith, he renounced error with a generous
spirit of sacrifice, conscious that the step would deprive him of
the accumulated wealth which an uncle reserved for his favorite
nephew. Proceeding to Paris, he entered the Seminary of St.
Sulpice, and after his course of studies, was ordained at New
York, on the 2d of March, 1844. He was subsequently Vice-
president and President of St. John's College, Pastor of Staten
Island, and then secretary to the archbishop, an office which
he filled down to the time of his consecration to the See of
Newark.

His jurisdiction extends to the whole State of New Jersey,
previously subject partly the See of Philadelphia, and partly to
that of New York. Of the rise of Catholicity in the State, it
becomes us here to say a few words. The first Catholic priest who ».
is known to have visited New Jersey is the Rev. Mr. Harding,
whose labors could not have been prior to 1762 ; but of the
time and place we have no details. The chief Catholic congre-
gation was at Macoupin, settled by a colony of Germans from the
neighborhood of Cologne, who were brought over to conduct the
iron- works begun in New Jersey, a little over a century ago.
Two of the families settled at Macoupin, Marion and Schulster,
were pious Catholics, from Baden ; and their descendants, to this
day, have preserved the faith and devotion of their ancestors,
gaining even the children of Protestant fellow-emigrants, so as to
form a Catholic colony remarkable for its fervent piety. A. Rev.

'■,'

;^iiipillllii

iH; 'i «' i

496

THE CATUOLIC CHURCH

1 ii

I OTsi

! ■ ( 'm

I! • k Iti'
1.1

Mr. Laiigrey, an Irisli priest, is said to have been tlic first to visit
them ; but the venerable Father Ferdinand Farmer, distinguished
in Europe as an astronomer and philosopher, and even honored
as such here,* but known to Catholics by his devoted labors as
an humble missionary, seems to have been the first to visit New
Jersey regularly. In his baptismal register, cited by Mr. Camp-
bell, we find him officiating at Geiger's in 1759, Charlottenbui'g
in 17G9, in Morris county, at Long Pond, and Mount Hope, near
Macoupin, in 1776. . Indeed, he is said to have visited Macoupin
twice a year for a considerable period. The lievolution, which
made New Jersey the battle-field between the contending armies,
interrupted his visits, and we do not find him reappearing till
1785, in Sussex county, llingwood and Hunterdon.

Other priests also visited the scattered Catholics, and among
these are mentioned the Rev. Mr. Malenx, Rev. Mr. Katen, and
Rev. Mr. Krcsgel ; the last named a German piiest, who was at
Macoupin in l775.f

Except, however, the Catholics at Macoupin, no traces now re-
main of those scattered through the State, prior to the Revolu-
tion. The schoolmaster at Mount Holly in l7G2 was an Irish
Catholic, Thomas McCurtain, a nephew of the Gaelic scholar;
but he removed to Philadelphia after the war, in order to enjoy
the advantages of religion.;]; Others, doubtless, did the same,
and swelled the congregations of Philadelphia and New York.

Towards the close of the century, a number of French families
from St. Domingo and other parts of the West Indies settled in
New Jersey, at various points. And in 1806, we find the Rev.

* lie was one of the trustees of the University, and a member of the Pliil-
osophical Society. U. S. Ciitliolic Mag:azinc, iv. 2r)7.

t Campbell, Life nnd Times of Arclibishop Carroll, in U. S. Catholic
Magazine, vi. 434. N. Y. Freeman's Journal, 1847. Bisliop Bayley, Brief
Sketch, p. 97.

X His wife was a convert, and the writer feels pride in saying that not on«
of his descendants haa ever fallen from, the Church. — J. (a. S.

to visit
ruished
lonoved
ibors as
jit New
. Camp-
tteiiburg
Dpe, near
Jacoupiti
,n^ wliicli
2 armies,
■aving till

id among
iaten, and
lio was at

es now re-
le Rcvolu-

is an Ii'is^i
c scholar-,
V to enjoy
the same,
tv York,
h families
settled in
the Kev.

of the PWl-

S. Catholic
;iiyley, Brief

Itluit not 0119

IN THE UNITED STATES.

497

Mr. Tisscraut living at Elizabetlitown with a colony of them.*
Ho was there, however, only a visitor, which was the more to bo
regi'ctted, as IMshop Choverus, in locomuiending Mrs. Seton to
apply to him, styles Mr. Tisseraut a most amiable and respectable
man, equally conspicuous for his learning and piety.

After New York had the consolation of possessing a bishop,
the Rev. Richard Bulger, who was ordained by the Right Rev.
Dr. Connolly in 1820, was stationed at Paterson, and during his
short career devoted himself with great fidelity to the care of the
Catholics scattered amid a most bigoted population. In the
course of his ministry, the Rev. Mr. liulgcr was often exposed to
insult and hardship, which he bore Avith patience and cheerful-
ness, often laughingly recounting his own mishaps. Nor was his
patience denied its fruit. The present Bishop of Newark relates
the following instance in which a conversion repaid humiliation,
and edifying patience was a lesson of truth :

"Trudging along one day on foot, carrying a bundle contain-
ing his vestments and breviary under his arm, he was overtaken
by a farmer and his wife in a wagon. The farmer invited Mr.
Bulger to ride ; but it having come out, in the course of his con-
versation, that he was a priest, the wife declared that he should
not remain in the wagon, and he was consequently obliged to get
out, and resume his journey on foot. But the farmer afterwards
a])plied to the Rev. Mr. Bulger for instruction, and was received
into the Catholic Church."f

The Church of Paterson is mentioned in the Almanac of
1822 as the only church in the State, Mr. Bulger being the pas-
tor. J His zealous career was, however, terminated by a prema-
ture death at New York in November, 1824.

As part of the State was subject to the Bishop of I'hiladel-

* Bishop Baylcy, Brief Sketch, p. 51. Sec White's Life of Motlicr Seton,
p. 171.
+ Bp. Bayley, Brief Sketch, p. 75. } Laity Directory for 1822, p. 105.

\k'

498

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

I ■''

p.\

.m:

pliia, we find soon after clergymen visiting that portion, and
establishing stations at Pleasant Mills and Trenton, which con-
tinued to be visited till the diocese of Newark was erected.

Newark had a pastor, about 1830, in the Rev. Gregory B.
Pardow, a native of New York, whom we find, in 1834, the only
priest actually residing in New Jersey. The next year, how-
ever, he was succeeded by the Very Rev. P. Moran, who has for
more than twenty years labored on that mission, and contributed
most essentially to the progress of Catholicity, as did the Rev.
Louis Senez, the Newark Oi'phan Asylum being due to the zeal
of the latter.

Madison, Jersey City, New Brunswick, and Paterson next had
resident pastors; and in 1841, the devoted Rev. John Raffeiner
raised a German church at Macoupin, the more than centenarian
son of Mr. Marion assisting at the ceremony. Two years later,
a German church also rose at Newark, directed by the Rev. N.
Balleis.

On assuming the direction of this diocese, the Right Rev.
Bishop found in the State thirty-three churches and thirty cler-
gymen, with an orphan asylum at Newark, containing fifty-one
children, guided by five Sisters of Charity, and parish schools
attached to many of the churches. Dui'ing the short period of
his incumbency, he has erected a fine cathedral, founded a sec-
ond Orphan Asylum at Paterson, and is about to open at Mad-
ison, Seton Hall College, an institution which will doubtless soon
rank with the older Catholic colleges of the Union.

ifpilr

IN THE UNITED STATES.

499

n, and
jh con-

rrory B.
he only
r, how-
I has for
tributed
he Rev.
the zeal

lext had
Raffeiner
Qtenarian
ars later,
e Kev. N.

ght Rev.

irty cler-
fifty-one
schools
period of
.ed a sec-
at Mad-
iless soon

CHAPTER XXVII.

1853, 1854.

Mission of the Nuncio, the Most Rev. Archbishop Bedinl— His arrival— Plot of th«
Italians— Their slanders — Eefutation— Death of Sassl— Reaction —"Violence of the
Germans — Result of his mission.

While the Holy See was examining with its usual maturity
the suggestions of the Plenary Council held in Baltimore in 1852,
it was resolved to testify its interest in the American Church, by
sending one of its representatives to bear the Apostolic benedic-
tion to the United States. Accordingly, in the spring of 1852,
the Most Rev. Cajetan Bedini, Archbishop of Thebes,* Nuncio
to Brazil, was commissioned to visit the United States, in order
to judge of the state of Catholicity in that vast Republic; and
we may say, that such a mission, the first confided to an envoy
of the Holy See in the American confederacy, has inaugurated
an important era, of which the future will develop the importance.
This mission coincided with the erection often new episcopal Sees ;
and marks the epoch when the Church in the United States be-
held its hierarchy completed, so as to meet the progress of the

* The Most Eov. Cajetan Bedini is a native of Senegairlia, and was for
years secretary of the Prince, now Cardinal Altieri, Nuncio at the Court of
Vienna. From the ability displayed by the Abate Bedini here, he was sent
as Internuncio to Eio Janeiro, where he distinguished himself as a diploma-
tist, and especially for his noble stand in favor of some German immigrants,
whose wrongs found an ardent sympathizer in the Papal envoy. On hia
return to Italy, he was intrusted with the government of Bologna and the
four legations, during the most troubled times. His ability here induced
the Hoiy Father to raise him to the episcopal dignity, as Archbiahop of
Thebes, and appoint him Nuncio to Brazil.

iii.' I'

■ J.

500

TUE CATilOLlO CHUKCH

faith and tlie incessant increase of the faitliful. Religion in tlio
United States has had three distinct periods : tlie first began with
the missions of the Jesnits of Maiyland and New Fi'ance, wlietlier
among the Indians of the Chesapeake, of Maine, New York, Il-
linois, and Michigan, or among the Eiux)pean Catliolics of Mary-
land, Pennsylvania, and the West. The second period, dating
from 1790, beholds the Holy See giving a centre to all these
scattered missions, by the erection of an episcopal See at Balti-
more. Some years later, the United States became an ecclesias-
tical province, and in 1808, on the eve of being torn from Rome
and dragged into captivity, Pius VII., extending his pastoral solici-
tude to America, founded the dioceses of Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, and Bardstown. These new Sees had multiplied
in 1853 to the number of forty-one, forming seven ecclesiastical
■provinces ; and with this expansion of the episcopate begins the
third period — that in which the Holy Father chose to be repre-
sented directly, or at least temporarily, amid a flourishing Church,
in order to make America better known at Rome, and also to
make Rome better known in America.

The mission of Archbishop Bedini was, as we say, essentially
temporary. Was it desirable for the good of religion that it
should be followed by the establishment of a nunciature, or per-
}nanent legation, either at Washington or New York ? We
think so, and still retain the hope that circumstances will permit
this at a day by no means remote. The presence of an envoy of
the Holy See in the United States Avould facilitate extremely the
relations of the episcopate and religious communities with Rome.
For the foundation of new Sees, for inquiries as to bishops pro-
posed, for dispensations, the examination of Provincial Councils,
a solution would be more speedily obtained by the presence and
intervention of this pontifical envoy. But the Pope, at the same
time that he is the head of the Universal Church, is temporal
sovereign oi' a European State ; and hence his representatives, in-

IN THE UNITED STATES.

;oi

u in tho
^au with
whether
i^oik, II-
[)f Mary-
l1, dating
all thest!
at BaUi-
ecclesias-
m\ Rome
>ral solici-
ew York,
ntiuUiphed
jlesiastical
begins the
» be reprc-
o; Church,
id also to

essentially
11 that it
re, or pcr-
•k ? We
ill permit
11 envoy of
emely the
ith Rome.
[ihops pro-
Councils,
scnce and
the same
temporal
atives, in-

trusted with tlio interests of the Church, are also accredited as.
ministers to the governments of foreign nations. In Europe,
where the State almost universally enters into the sphere of re-
ligious interests, and where concordats hetween the State and
tlie Holy See regulate the relations of the secular and ecclesias-
tical powers, such a union of functions excites no surprise. The
United States, as a government, is expressly debarred from in-
terfering in ecclesiastical matters ; by the very words of the
Constitution, as amended, " Congress shall pass no law concern-
ing the establishment of a religion, or prohibiting the free exer-
cise thereof." Here, thercjfore, the State can never enter into
any negotiations with the Holy See for the purpose of drawing
up a concordat as the base of its harmonious legislation in eccle-
siastical matters. In the political point of view, however, there
exists nothing to prevent the Holy See from having its repre-
sentative at Washington, as the United Stales actually has a
Minister Resident at Rome. The frequent visits of Americans
to Itah', the sometimes prolonged residence there of prelates,
clergymen, students, artists, and others, and even the emigration
of Italians from the Papal States to this country, all justify tlie
residence at Washington of a Nuncio as minister or charge of
His Holiness.

This representative may or may not be the depositary of pow-
ers in matters ecclesiastical ; but this is a matter with which tho
government of the United States has, and can have, no concern.
If the resident minister at Washington, or any other, is invested
with the powers of a Nuncio in matters ecclesiastical, the prin-
ciple of liberty of worship would pi'otoct him in his relations
with the episcopate — relations which would of course be limited
to the domain of religion.

Catholics, like all other citizens of the Un#ed States, have,
by the Constitution and laws, a right to the full and fair en-
joyment of their religion, and, in the government of their

602

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

4 \' .-fe'-f ;;'

ih : t

Church, to such arrangomcnts and dispoftitions as they docm
necessary. No American will deny them this right, or take um-
brage at it ; for, in spite of the agitations caused by foreign fa-
natics, or occasional ebullitions of old prejudice, the Americans,
as a people, have never shown a desire to molest their Catholic
fellow-citizens in the free enjoyment of their religion, or deprivo
them of social equality.

Among Catholics, opinions may differ as to wliether the epoch
has yet come when the residence of a Nuncio in the country is
called for by the wants of the time, or whether it should be de-
ferred for a season. As the Holy See has already made a step
towards the establishment of a Nunciature, we have expressed
our opinion, or rather our wish, openly, perfectly aware that tho
matter rests with the Holy See, and that, in whatever action
shall be taken, the prelates of the United States will evince not
only the devoted attachment of the Bench of Bishops to the
Chair of Peter, but the no less cordial attachment of the clergy
and people over whom they preside ; and who, divided as they
may be from each other by origin, language, early education,
and associations, present a spectacle almost unparalleled in his-
tory, of union among themselves in religious matters, affectionate
submission to their pastors, and devotedness to the Apostolic
See. There is an instinct of self-preservation in the Catholic life
which makes all cleave to Rome with an attachment and an
ardor as strong as that expressed by Fenelon for it in language
borrowed from Scripture.

Another result of the creation of which we are examining the
advantages, would be to exalt the character of religion not only
in the minds of Protestants, but even in the eyes of Catholics
whose faith has been weakened by unhappy circumstances. Till
these later timen^ the expansion of Catholicity in America has
encountered an obstacle in the prejudice which viewed it as the
religion of the servant and the laborer. The Protestant who

■f deem
kc um-
ciffn fa-
cricatis,
Catholic
deprive

,e epoch
luntry is
d be de-
B a step
xpressed
that tlio
ir action
ince not
)S to the
le clergy
as they
Jucation,

in his-
[cctionate

postolic
Iholic life

and an
language

Ining the
Inot only
Catholics
3es. Till
Irica has
lit as the
lant vrho

IN THE UNITED Si..TE3.

603

felt himself drawn to us, had to overcome human respect ; and
while his kindred would have had no objection to his changing
from sect to sect, and from Methodist, for example, become a
Baptist, or vice versa, they become indignant when one of them
brought humiliation on the family by embracing the faith of the
servant-girl and the immigrant. It is not easy to foim an idea
how many of our separated brethren have been retained in mis-
belief by such wretched considerations. Travelling in Europe
has had its influence in converting, often been the primary cause ;
and we have been told by some, that had they remained at
home, they should probably have found in self-love an obstacle
to the light of faith ; while in the Old World, seeing the reli-
gion practised by the highest classes of society, they discovered
that they could be Catholics without ceasing to be gentlemen.
But a whole nation never goes abroad, or becomes tourists, as a
path to the truth. We must, then, go to it, and give high hu-
man ideas of our Faith, in order to prepare them for its recep-
tion. Now the presence of a representative of the Holy See
would, it seems to us, prepare the way for & fashionable restora-
tion of Catholicity. His character would permit him to mingle
in society, or have receptions in his salons. Protestants would
there meet members of the clergy, whom they knew only by cal-
umny or fanaticism. Prejudices would disappear in this inter-
course ; and Americans would see that they might, without
abasement, embrace a religion whose head delegated such emi-
nent ambassadors. Catholics, on their side, would find motives
for exalting their character ; they would no longer think of apol-
ogizing for being Catholics, or seeming as little Catholic as pos-
sible, for fear of giving their Protestant friends a low idea of
their intelligence and taste ; for to such a feeling we must, it is
conceded, ascribe many of the defections which occurred in past
years.

Moreover, on examining the eflforts of infidelity to thwart the

r>o4-

TIIK CATHOMC ("IllliCir

temporary mission of AnliMslioj) IJcdini, we li;i\c' :i Hun; mcaiiH
of nppri'ciafiiiii; its impoitaiicc. llfll is crafty in its eiiterprisi'H,
niid Avlicn it accnmulatcs falsehood, calimmy, and violence, to
defeat an undcrtakini;-, we may he certain that it dreads to s<.'0
Hoiils wrested from its emjiire. IJefore dispatching the Arch-
bishop of 'I'hehes on his mission, the (^onrt of Jiome, with its
usual prudence, had t.ikeu the precaution of soundiiij^ Mr. Lewis
Cass, the C'harf]j6 d'AlVaires of the United States ivt the Holy
See. The oflicial reply was, that the govoniment at Washin<fton
would heliold with ple.asurt3 tlie mission of Archbishop Uedini,
and, in consecpieiice, that prelate set out for New York. His
arrival at fii'st ijavo no umbraw to the American l^rotestants.
After a short stay at New York, Baltimore, and riiiladi'lphia,
the Apostolic envoy, accompanied by the Most Jiev. Archbishop
Hui^hes, proceeded as far west as Milwaukie, studyin<^ with tho
bishops the state of religion in tliesc dioceses, visiting the con-
vents and colleges, and charming all who approached him by his
lofty views, distinguislied niav'iers, and courteous address. At
AVashington, he presented to i'rcsident Pierce the following au-
tograph letter of His Holiness :

"Illustrious and iionoued Sih, Greeting :

" As our venerable brother, the Arclibishop of Thebes, accred-
ited as our envoy in ordinary, and Nuncio of the Apostolic See
near the Imperial Court of l^razil, has been directed by us to
visit those regions (the United States), we have at the same
time especially charged liim to present himself in our name be-
fore your Excellency, and to deliver into your hands these our
letters, together with many salutations, and to express to you, in
the warmest language, the sentiments we entertain towards you,
which he will testify. We take it for granted that these friendly
demonstrations on our part will bo agreeable to you ; and least
of all do we doubt but that the aforesaid venerable brother, a

"it- ft 'i:

IN TIIK UNITED STATK8.

505

•r\('0, to
to »«;o

0 Arch-
Aith its
r. LcwifA
le U<»ly

ihiut^toii

1 Ik'trmi,
lie. His

)l('Si!llltS.

clibislioi)
with the
tUo con-
iiu by l»i>^
OSS. At
)wing au-

accred-
[tolio See
by us to
the saiuo
jiKimc be-
Uiese our
lo you, in
|ards you,
friendly
ind least
Dvotlier, a

man einiiiontly distinguislicd tor i\u\ sterling (pialities of mind
and heart wliicli cliariiclerizn liiin, will bo kindly reccivod by
your Exccllt'iuiy. And iiiaHinucli as wa liave been intruHttid by
Divine commission with tlu! care of the Lord's flock throughout
the world, we cannot allow this oppoitunity (o pass without
earnestly entreating you to extend your protection to the Catho-
lics inhabiting those regions, and to shield tliem at all times with
your power and authority. Keeling (Confident that your Excel-
lency will very willingly a(!(!ede to our wishes, and grant our
requests, we shall not fail to oft'or up our humble supplicationB
to Almighty God, that lie may bestow upon you, illustrious and
honored Sir, the gift of His heaverdy grace, that He may shower
upon you every kind of blessing, and unite us in the bonds of
perfect charity.

"Given at Rome, in the Vatican, March 31, 1853, the seventli
of our Pontificate.

" Pius IX., Pope.
" To his Excellency thft

" Pkksident of thk United States. "<>

» " Plus P P. IX.

*' Il.LU9TRlS KT H0N0RABII,13 ViK, RaI.UTEM !

" Cum vcncrabilis Fratcr (^ajotnnuH, Arehicpiscopus Thebnnorum ad ordi-
iiarii nostri et Apostolieaj Sedis Nuntii mumis apud Imporialem Brazilien-
Hem allium obeimdum a nobis doslinatua per istUB tnuiseat regioaes, eidem
in prsecipuis mandatis dedimiis ut noatro Nomine Nobilitatoui tuam conve-
niat, Tibiquo has nostnis reddat Littcras, plurimtim salutcm dicat et simul
nostri in te animi Hcnsus luculciitis verbis oxprimat atque testetur.

" Procerto liabemns huec nostra in te stndia per^uriita tibi fore, ac minime
dnbitamus, quincundcm Vcncrabilem Friitrem c<rreg:ii8 animi, ingeniiqne
dotibuH ornatiun pro e.\Iniia tua luinianitate, bcniynissinie sis excepturus.
p]t quoniam universi Dominici gregis cura nobis divinitiis est cominissa,
idcirco baud possumus quin hac quoque oceasione libentiasimo ntontes, a
Te tolis viribus euixa efBagitemus, ut Catiiolicos iu istis regionibus degente»
valido Tuo patrooinio et nuctoritatc tegere et tueri semper velis. Duni
autein confidimus, Nobilitatem tuam nostris biacc desideriis ac postula-
tionibuH perlibentor esse satisfacturam baud omittimuB a Deo optimo
Maximo humiliter exposcore, ut Te, lUustris et Honorabilis Vir, coelestift

506

TIIK CATHOLIC CHUUCH

fill

?■■"'

It might Ijhvo boen oxpoctcil tliat public opinion would coiv
tinuo to resi)cct a poison of eininonc(>, who (^onHriotl hiinsolt' ex-
clusively to hi« rcli^HDUs ninl pacitlr sphere. liut, ns wo Imvo
said, the Hpirit of falsohooil, iilaniiiMl at the increase of the legit-
imate inlluonce of Koine, sought to oppose it; and for this work
of iniquity, excited some Italian refugees, who distinguished
themselves in America by a blind hatred of the religion which
is the glory and fortune of tiicir native land. Banished from
Italy, which their inomentary reign had brought to the verge of
ruin, tliese demagogues sought to obtain support abroail by flat-
tering rrotestantism, by defaming the Papacy, and seeking to
destroy the faith in which they were baptized. Their paper,
L'' Eco (ritalia, and their orator, the ex-Uarnabite friar (iavazzi,
undertook to alarm the Americans, by tales of the perfidious and
ambitious intrigues of Rome, at the same time that tliey attacked
the Nuncio in person. The press soon repeated the calumnies
of the Italians, and (Javazzi, especially, aecused the prelate of
having condemned the unfortunate j)riest, Ugo Bassi, an ex-Bar-
nabite, and ofHcer in tlie horde of Garibaldi, who was seized l)y
the Austrians in 1849, during the flight of that chieftain of tlio
Condottieri. Now at that time, Ar(;hbishop Bedini, although
pro-legate of tlie Pope at Bologna, actually exercised no authori-
ty. The Austrians were masters of the place, and Ugo Bassi,
who had but too well deserved his fate, was put to death by the
Austrian forces, witliout any act of the pro-legate.

Besides this calumny, which the J^ew York Express complai-
santly eclioed, that sheet gave the list of fifty pseudo-patriots
shot, it averred, by the orders of Archbishop Bedini ; and sum-

BU8B gratiae donis, omnique veroB felicitfttis genere cumulet, ac perfecta nobis
cum caritate conjungnt.

"Datum EomsB apud y. Petram die 81 Martii, anno 1853, Pontifieatus
noBtri anno septimo.

" Pius P. P. IX."

(Voiild coil-
liiiiiHt'lf ox-
is \vi! Imvo
f tlie legit-
r this work
stingiiished
gion which
lishod from
he vergo of
oa«:l by flnt-
8(>eking to
'heir paper,
iar (iavazzi,
rfiihous and
loy attacked
} calumnies
5 prehite of
, an ex-Bar-
is seized l)y
;ftain of the
li, altliough
no authori-
Ugo Bassi,
leath by the

•ess complai-

'udo-patriots

; and sum-

perfecta nobis
J, Pontificatus
9 P. P. IX."

^'xeemio,,,. >"n<.of,oM. «|| pari in'pnt ion in those

;i:-nh^::^^:':;^^^^^ o.,. .., ,„..,^^„^.

J'«<^"-on, and allow his a„., ' ''"' '"'^' '"^'' ^'"^ "'-^'na of

' "'^"' to onler into a jn n-hV-.ti^ r ''"' ""''^"'' '-»"•' """'i-
^ l-t<^- Xuneio, it n4h : ^^'•"■^'" ^--^ of ti:o

f ^J'^' Italian Ca,I..,nan i ', f "' '" "'"^•"""' the imposfun
;'';^'--st An.en..n , ""^y^ ""'"-^^ then, in „.o !;os

- --e, that truth c^J^ ^ '" °:'" •'^''^'^' ^'^ ^- vea,
^ble authonV thought ins ;;, "" '' '^ ^^^''•"'•''- Avon

-t doenn.nts l,y the . nf "' ^"'"^'"^ ^''<^ -'P-

"-^-•'•^l^'e n.onn.nent, and in ! ^'^' '^'^^ ^^'-''^l ''-Hain an
'■•"-■s. -^^' -• ^^^et, a pi„o,,. ,r the ,uilty de-

A;cl^bishopBedinineitI,er tt!ro ""' "' ''^' ^■^I^l--b-.v, tCt
- the Fonr 1..^,,,,,. ^^ ^^^ ^or p„t to death the p tri ts

c'^uniing the sHt^ /. ^^e Austrian mih-fary o-cno,/

to i"e srate of sieo-n nn fi. ,h , -^ s^^^ernor, nro-

'■-;vi'!' these .cn.„L,:i::^ .'""'-'-' '." official no.ifio.-
^™»- aaJ that „,e En.oj'of i; iI !"' «°°'' ^^"^-^ »'■«- citi-

!,;

508

THE CATHOLIC ClIUnCH

him, may soon directly and fully exorcise his peaceful mission in
your midst."

On the 17th of May only, tne city of Bologna had 'been put
in the state of siege ; but, l>y a notification of the 6th of June,
this exceptional state was extended to the Fonr Legations, and
thus annulled the edict of the 26th of March, by which Arch-
bishop Bedini, when he first entered Bologna, declared the civil
and criminal courts restored to the free and full exercise of their
respective functions. With the procedure and sentences of these
courts, the Apostolic Commissary had no power to interfere.
The will of the Pontifical envoy was to restore the civil laws all
their sway ; the perversity of the lawless compelled the Austrian
general to concentrate all powers in himself.

The question de jure is settled by these documents. The ques-
tion de facto receives the same solution, by taking up the names
of the fifty would-be patriots, said to have been put to death by
Archbishop Bedini, and by giving the ofiicial record of the
crime, sentence, and death of each one, thus showing that, in
point of fact. Archbishop Bedini had nothing to do with their
death. The ofiicial documents in the Appendix will also show
that the majority of these martyrs of freedom Avere robbers and
bandits. Does this deprive them of the title of Italian patriots ?
On the contrary, the hordes of Mazzini and Garibaldi were re-
cruited among the scum of society. May this lesson teach
Americans whether all the political refugees from Europe de-
serve their sympathy ! Because in the United States the Repub-
lican form of government is justly loved by all the citizens, many
would view in every European republican a brother ; but can they
not understand that the best form of government for a country
is that which is upheld by the majoiity of the people ? Go, in
Europe, into a tavern, gambling-house, prison, or galley, and in-
quire the political opinions of the frequenters and inmates of
such places : all will tell you that they are republicans, per-

ssion m

een put
)f June,
Dus, and
h Arcli-
,he civil
of their
of these
nterfere.
laws all
A.ustrian

'he ques-
16 names
death by
a of the
' that, in
^ith their
Iso show
jbers and
patriots ?
1 were re-
,on teach
irope de-
le Repub-
ens, many
t can they
a country
? Go, in
>y, and in-
nmates of
icans, per-

^ . IN THE UNITED STATES. j^g

>0"», who flatler tI,o lower o,Z \ ''"'" "'' *<= "■»«-

"> their n:,mo. '"^'"^' '" '>°P<^« "f "sing a„d ruli„g

f "SXfBi^^tXlt 7';" '*^"^ "'"«" )-- that
f 7.«.o eccfc.iastica. .,. i L't f:"""; "^"'-^"-'«-»- «-'
to h,s fate or memory, took thr l' ,' '''""'"^ ""M'^renee

Bas^i died iB the m„s It ° '"''!<=* ■"""•'^t iu both. LVo

"-; he wished hH fat^S r',""":: "f P'='^ »"1 -PO.u!
"PPosodit; and a„ arg^: r"* P""'" ' >'"' the Austria,.,
Their censorship was iul, ,7 w! "'"'"' "™° '"'' °» «h»'-
tant document, through the kind o(K r'"'"'' ""^^o ""Por-
■'"ng*. who took the tr^ouhle to 1 ! ;", "' "" «^'- °^- C™-
«• *rg,man, who rendered^mp':;': ! "'"• ^"' '''^*"«'"»''-
dunng his mission, both at wZ , """' '° "'" N""<=io
«ot but take a lively iuteresti „ °^'°", "' """^ ^'°'''-. -""
f»'o the Amcican people " P'"'"« '"'» »' » "'"e light be-

The Carbonari lodo-es nf P,„ , ,

-o'ings, to defeat the° miss In fT t' 'T""' '" '"- -eret

of Thebes. Gavazzi star d rol r ^ ""'"^'''"^ ^'-"''W^hop

■•".d concerted hi, plan, w ,, ri^™ ''' """f "f the pio ,

Itah-an apostates Jon "::„', 'l;:^^''!'*' "> ^™«i- The'

vhuh-nt enemies of the pJlT "'J"'f''''^i .™d the most

™d the rostrum with „SZ r f' *^" ^"'^'' «>= P"'?'',
p.-0-a.e, who wa, hch, up tl 'C* ™ '"^ '--'d -d piol'
hena. For several month, Gavl f I""""" "' *<= ^'"'""«
hi*op Bedini, like hi, shatw 1 ^^^ T^' ''»P "^ Arch-
cty ; and there the ox-monk e;lav!T;' "" ''"■"™ '» --T

■"■■t»to the crowd, by vomiting ton. 0 V""*"-""''"''""'

oourses on the venerable object o ,' . '"""-^ '" ''">■''" '^'^-

'>"ld up ,0 the vengeance o „ " ''"'T''" ^ '""" '^ >»ver

g ot a people w.thout their arisiuo^ as

:'flr

510

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

avengers. lu the summer of 1853, a Sardinian frigate landed at
New York eighty-tlirce Italians, recommending them to the hos-
pitality of Americans, as political refugees from Kome and Lom-
bardy ; but in reality there were among the number criminals
condemned, for various ofJ'ences, to transportation. For these
men, attacks with word and pen on the Nuncio soon seemed to
legalize a crime of another dye, and a plot was formed among
them to assassinate the prelate. However, the remorse of one of
the conspirators enabled the Archbishop of Thebes to be on his
guard. Sassi, at the peril of his life, informed the Nuncio of the
attempt to be made for his assassination ; but his visits to the
spot where the envoy of His Holiness resided had not been un-
observed. Sassi was stabbed to the heart at night, in the streets
of New York.* Before expiring, their victim made revelations
to the police, and also to the Abbe Cauvin, a priest of Nice, who
endeavors to enlighten his countrymen with a zeal which nothing
repels. Mr. Cauvin applied to Archbishop Bedini, whom the
news of the murder surprised in Canada, to know how he should
act ; and the touching reply of the worthy representative of Pius
IX. was as follows :

" My dear Abb6 :

" I beg you to take no steps on my behalf with the authori-
ties, as to the affair of poor Sassi. It is not in the least my
desire to pursue any one whomsoever, with the sword of justice.
My life is in the hands of God, far more than in those of men.
My ministry is one of peace and pardon, and my heart can only
love those who hate me.

" Continue to comfort the hearts of the poor Italians, who,

* To cover the plot, the guilty and tlieir favorers endeavored to make
Sassi's death a private quarrel ; but the evidence is so clear as to preclude
all doubt. Had tlic American people been convinced that Sassi luid been
murdered from political motives, tlie foreign refugees would have lost all
credit in u moment; and the murderers knew this well.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

611

3d at

lios-
Loni-
ainals
these
aed to
imong
one of
on his
, of the
to the
een im-
i streets
elations
ice, -who
nothing
torn the
should
of Pius

authori-
least my

justice.

of men.
lean only

., who,

Ins,

ll to make
lo precUitlo
\ had been
Ive lost all

after all, cannot but be ever exasperated by the sufferings of
exile. Poor people ! they are indeed to be pitied. Ptest assured
that I will recommend them especially to God's mercy ; and,
unable to extend my hand to relieve them, since I do not know
them, I extend it gladly over them to bless them all— be they
who they may.

" Believe me, my dear Abbe, &c.,

" C. Bedini,
*' Aechbtshop of TiirnEa,

' ' Apostolic Nuncio.
"St. Hyacinthe, September 20th, 1853."

The iniquity of a controversy which puts the poniard into the
hands of assassins, and the contrast between these diabolical at-
tacks and so much mildness, soon opened the eyes of many
Protestants, who had at first been misled by the incessant cal-
umnies of the refugees. A remarkable article in the Courier
and Enquher, a well-known and influential journal in New
York (November 1), was the signal of the reaction. The politi-
cal press almost all took up the defence of the Nuncio ; and
then it was that the Mnyor of New Yoik officially invited the
representative of the Holy See to visit the public establish-
ments and benevolent institutions — an honor accorded only
to the most eminent guests of the city. This excursion took
place on the 10th of November; and after visiting the Institute
for the Blind, and the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, Orphan Asy-
lums, Schools and Hospitals, the Nuncio sat down to a sumptuous
banquet, tendered to him by the Commissioners of Emigration.
Everywhere Archbishop Bedini charmed the authorities of the
city, and the many forlorn ones whom it gathers into its public
institutions, by the appositeness of his remarks, and the pro-
found knowledge displayed by his questions ; but, above all, they
enthusiastically applauded the phrase by which he closed his

\m M

512

THE CATHOLIC ClIUllClI

thanks to the assembly for diiuking- his health : '* As you all des-
ignate the Pope by the name of lloly Father, let us hope that he
may one day call you all his children."

During this period, the least hai-assed in his stay, Archbishop
Bedini was enabled to celebrate the most solemn and most in-
teresting ceremonies of the Catholic worship, in order to corre-
spond to the invitations which met him from every side. Without
regard to fatigue, he was seen in turn dedicating cathedrals, cele-
brating ordinations, giving the \'eil to religious, receiving the ab-
jurations of Protestants, opening ecclesiastical retreats, presiding
at college exhibitions, visiting convents and hospitals, consoling
the sick, and blessing the orphans — everywhere welcomed as
an envoy of mercy, and leaving evidences of edification and of
devotedness to the Holy See. On seeing the dignity which
the Archbishop of Thebes brought to the discharge of these
different functions, pi'iests and laity conceived the highest idea
of the Roman Court ; and the faithful in America, who admired
the spectacle of so much pomp united to so much piety, asked
themselves what must be the august majesty of the Holy Father,
whose ambassador possessed so striking a reflection of it. The
grandest ceremony of all was the consecration of the Bishops of
Burlington, Brooklyn, and Newark, which took place in the
Cathedral, at New York, on Sunday, the 30tl\ of October, 1853,
by the hands of Archbishop Bedini. The Catholicis of America,
ordinarily habituated to a religious simplicity required by the pov-
erty of their sanctuaries, were filled with enthusiasm at a solem-
nity which gave them some idea of the brilliant festivals of
Christian Rome : they admired the clear accentuation and har-
monious chant of the Nuncio, when pronouncing the canonical
interrogatories and the magnificent prayers of the Episcopal
consecration ; they followed with pious curiosity the various
ceremonies, so new to most of them ; and if the mission of
Aichbishop Bedini had had no other result than the deep imprcs-

IN THE UNITED STATES.

513

ill des-
,liat he

ibishop
lost iii-
) coric-
A^itbout
lis, cele-
; the ah-
)residing
jonsoling
;omecl as

sion produced by the majesty with which he maiutainod the
pomp of worship, it would have rendered considerable service to
religion.

In the month of December, the Apostolic Nuncio set out to
visit the Western States, stopping in the principal cities of Penn-
sylvania, and especially at Pittsburg, where the enthusiastic wel-
come of the Catholics was troubled by the insults of some fanat-
ics. At Cincinnati, however, these acts of violence assumed a
more serious character. The desperate attacks of the Italian
refugees had, as we have seen, failed to excite public opinion
against the venerable object of their hate. Unable to arouse
the Americans, the Italians called upon another paity of the
socialist immigration, and the German infidels, more numerous
and more influential than the Italians, might well hope, by in-
timidation, to drive out the Representative of the Holy See. If
we term them infidels, we merely give them a name which they
adopt and are so proud of, thai they glory in what others would
deem an insult. The political emigration of the last few years,
and Kossuth's travels, have organized these Germans into a fear-
ful league against Catholicity ; but the introduction of the Ger-
man element into the pinulation of the United States dates far
back. Ever since the do of the seventeenth century, the fer-
ment of that amalgam of ubborn thinking nations has period-
ically sent its portion to America. Every war, every treaty that
transmitted a province from one sovereign to another, the sect
that believed itself persecuted, or that which lost the power
of persecuting, sought a refuge in emigration ; and thus the
New "Woi'ld successively received the descendants of the fierce
Hussites, who abandoned Silesia ; the fr;!gments of the wild
Anabaptists, crushed at Munster, but ever seeking to raise their
heads ; or else the Lutherans of the Palatinate and Salzburg,
imwilling to live in their own country when the Catholic wor-
ship was tolerated there. From all these, and more recent emi-

22*

> iii

514

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

I-:
■)!:.■

gratioiis, has resulted a Gorman population estimated at no less
than four millions.

Thinking men have long dreaded the anju'ehy menaced by (he
impious audacity of a part of these Germans. Their hundred
papers are almost unanimous in their socialist and even atheistic
tendency. War against all religions in general, and Catholicity
in particular, is the motto of almost all these gazettes, which
openly preach the deification of the creature, and the satisfac-
tion of every appetite, of every passion. This poisoned presa
was now to undertake to excite its readers against the Nimcio,
in order to bring on a general war against the Catholics ; and
the arrival of Archbishop Bedini at Cincinnati was followed by
the appearance of a frightful article in the IlocJuvccchter, a Ger-
man paper in that city. To appreciate this bloody polemic,
traced with the stiletto of the assassin, we must cite a few
lines.

After calling the archbishop a murderer, a human butc^her, a
Patagonian cannibal, ofleiing in sacrifice the tears of poverty,
and after saying that, for the solemnity of Christmas, the
Church prepares horrible and bloody mysteries, the journalist
continues :

" What name shall we deserve, if the butcher of Bologna re-
turn home safe and sound, and leave the starry ltci)ublic full of
life, his body untouched, and his limbs unbroken ? If it is so,
let us talk no more of the power of ideas of liberty to conquer
the world ; let us no longer exalt the valor and dignity of man ;
let us keep our mouths shut and our eyes fixed on the ground.
Posterity will spit upon our cowardice, and will feel only con-
tempt and disdain. Whenever the opportunity of vengeance
oflters, it must be seized at once, and used to its furthest limit.
Every man who has motives to exercise his vengeance, should
exercise it when he can. The sons of Italy are <oo few among
us to punish the bloodhound of Bologna for his dark and san-

n t

,-eiiy,
tlio
L-nalist

iia vc-
ull of
is i^o,
mqnev
man ;
ound.
y con-
eance
limit,
phoukl
imong
Id san-

IN THE UNITED STATES.

515

guinary deeds. The Yankee is too absorbed in his speculations
and love of money ; the Yankee has neither feelinrrs nor princi-
ples : do not trust to the Yankee for your vengeHL^,t. Rely
still less on the sons of Green Erin, the vulgar Irish. They
are nurtured in ignorance and vulgarity ; their eyes are blind ;
they are incapable of seeing beyond a priest's gown ; they can-
not discern under the cross and the rosary the heart of flint, the
heart of the hyena ! Germans, you are the elect. The Wakr-
i-nts Freund (German Catholic Paper) is on the track; it is dis-
posed to believe that the assassin of Ugo Bassi, and of one hun-
dred and thirty-three other patriots, that Bcdini, that murderer,
covered with opprobrium, is not precisely safe among us. In
fact, that sheet is not wrong. We laugh at what the Wahrheits
Freund is pleased to call American hospitality ! Who will suffer
a hyena, a tiger, among men ? Bedini goes about seeking whom
he may devour. He thinks but of murder — the murder of
minds and ideas. He is not our guest ; he is a thief; he is a
beast of prey, plotting the destruction of the peace of the coun-
try. Whoever offers him hospitality in America is an enemy of
liberty. Such is Bedini. Is there a hospitable roof in the starry
Republic for tigers and hyenas 1 Is there no ball, no dagger for
R monster never equalled on earth ? The Catholic journal has
reason to tremble for Bedini's life in Cincinnati "

This sanguinary article appeared on the 24th of December,
and the next day, wliile the Nuncio was reposing in the evening,
after the fatigues of the ceremonies of the day, five hundred
Germans of the Society of Freemen, headed by Hassaurek, editor
of the Hochw(Mcht€i\ marched to the temporary r 3sidence of the
Nuncio. They were armed, and carried torches to light them in
their work. The police were on the alert, and a hundred reso-
lute inen, stopping the march of the rioters, ordered them to
disperse. Firearms were discharged, and after a struggle in
which eighteen persons fell, the Germans took flight, lea.ving

•

I! ;

, 'I

liliP

616

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

seventy of tlicir party in the; liaruls of tlio police. The laltoi
had done their duty nobly, and for ii few days [lublic opinion
rejoiced at their energetic suppression of the riot. But the Ger-
mans soon succeeded in awakening to a eeitain point the ever
active Protestant fanaticism, by representing theinsebes as vic-
tims, and their defeat as a triumph of I'opery. The rioters were
accordingly enlarged, and the policemen guilty of having done
their duty were arrested or broken ; and thci (lermans then, cer-
tain of impunity, enjoyed the satisfaction of burning the Nuncio
in effigy, amid the vociferations of impiely and wrath. By these
menacing demonstrations, they wished to alarm the Nuncio ; but
the courageous prelate was not shaken, and did not the less pro-
long his stay in Cincinnati for a whole week. " I had an-
nounced," wrote lie, " that I would bless a new church, and I
could not let the infidels triumph by setting out before ; more
especially as the German Catholics, who are very numerous at
Cincinnati, begged me to visit tlieir church and their establish-
ments. Thus I spent the week, led about at the desire of these
pious faithful. I celebrated Mass in some German churches, I
inspected their schools, seminaries, the Jesuit college, fud sev-
eral convents, and I everywhere rec^ei'cd the most satisfactoiy
impressions of the spirit of faith, science, and charity which
reigns in these remarkable institutions. Oh ! how many recip-
rocal consolations ! how many blessings given and received with
a heart moved, but trusting in Providence ! The devil riiust
have shuddered at these holy transports, and the warm-hearted
Avelcome extended to the representative of the Holy See."

Thus we behold this prelate never turned aside from his mis-
sion ; and when, some days after, a riot tl reatened hira at Wheel-
ing ; when men armed with swords and clubs sought as the
troop led by Judas sought the Saviour of the world. Archbishop
Bedini will not think of himself; he will rhink only of the grief
of the Holy Father, Pope Pius IX , on learning the outrages of

IN THK UNITED STATES.

517

the wicked. " Thoy again ainuscd themselves with burning nie
in eflig^,, wrote he on the 1(M\ of Janiuiry, 1854. " What ix
mortification it will bo to the Iloly Father, as it is to all good
Catholics here !" Wo must, however, repeat our declaration,
that these manifestations were confined to the circle of German
infidels ; and to the close the Americans were spectators, taking
no part. But in the United States a fanatic minority can keep
up a long agitation under the cloak of liberty oi worship, liberty
of speech, and liberty of the press. The electric telegiaph was
employed by the conspirators to increase and spread their demon-
strations, and the journals of the Union were filled with dispatch-
es announcing that in such a city a rising wuh m preparation
against the lloman hyena; that in another he was burnt in
effigy ; and in a third, they had broken the windows of the
churches. This news was generally false or exaggerated ; but
the blow was struck, and, thanks to the mania for imitation, tho
month of January, 1854, saw groups of Germans in most of the
cities of the United States enjoying the satisfaction of burning a
mitred figure, amid the most impious shouts.

After the danger to which he was exposed at Cincinnati and
Wheeling, the Nuncio returned to Washington, where he enjoyed
some days' repose; and he wrote from that city on tho iTth of
.lanuary, " I hei'e enjoy the amiable and generous hospitality of
the French Minister, the Count do Sartigos, who lavishes every
attention upon me ; and I am infinitely happy to see 'that it is
always Franco that upholds the dignity of religion and the Holy
See, even when men wished to humiliate them. This morning I
received a most touching letter from the most distinguished
Catholics of Baltimore. These gentlemen inform me that they
will come to Washington to-morrow with their families, in order
to show to the representative of the Holy See their respects and
protestations against the late demonstrations. Here marks of at-
tentions are not wanting on the part of the most distinguished

618

TUE CATHOLIC CIIUUCH

persons of the country, as well as of the diplomatic body, and
1 am most satisfied with my stay, fhe reception of the deputation
from Baltimore will take place at the French embassy — another
subject of just pride for the eldest daughter of the Church."

But, apart from marks of politeness and compliments of con-
dolence, the government at Washington took no measures to
protect the person of the Nuncio, and nothing could induce it to
shako oft* its indifference. They took refuge behind the plea
that the Archbishop of Thebes was Nuncio only to Brazil ; and
as the dispatches of Mr. Lewis Cass, Charge d' Affaires of the
United States at Rome, mentioned tlie complimentary mission of
the prelate to the President of the United States, these dispatches
were carefully lost, and to all the demands of the Senate, Mr.
Marcy's answer was, that they could not be found.* In presence
of this pusillanimous forgetfulness of international duties, the
Senate took up the cause of right and justice, and the 23d
of January was sj)ent in discussions in which the violence of
the Germans against the Nuncio was denounced, and the per-
sonal character of that eminent prelate avenged from the calum-
nies heaped on his head. General Cass spoke first, and after him
eight other Senators successively expressed the severest censure
on the turbulent nianifestations of European refugees. Only one
member pretended that the will of the people was to be respected
even in its vagaries ; but we must say that it was the Senator
from California ; and it is easy to feel that, for an envoy from
that State, scenes of disorder, unless attended with assassinations,
seemed not worthy of repression.

* We give in the Appendix Lewis Cass's dispatch of March 20, 1858,
whicli Marcy could not find for the Senate. It was the very letter the Sen-
ators wanted, and the one that settled the question mooted as to Mon-
seif^neur Bedini's complimentary mission. We also publish Mr. Lewis
Cass's letter to Cardinal Antonelli. "to assure his Eminence of the cordial
reception which Mouseigneur Bedlui would receive from the government
tit Wiiuhington,"

IN THE UNITED STATES.

619

and

0, 1853,
le Sen-

o Mon-
Lewia
cordial
rnment

Tho debates in the Seuato attracted much atteiitio'.i, and lion-
est men of all parties and creeds ;ippluuded the eloquent mani-
festation of the sontimeu*8 of the (loiinlry. It was understood
that the Nuncio was soon to start for Europe, and had had his
final audience with the I'residcut. Emissaries of the secret so-
cieties tracked his steps to inform the conspirators, and get up
insulting mobs in every city ho was to pass through. For sev-
eral weeks, on the departure of every steamer for Europe, crowds
of Germans flocked to the wharf, ready to rush on the Nuncio
as soon as he appeared. These tumultuous scones were re-enacted
at New York and Boston, and everywhere, the telegraph and the
reports of the hostile papers increased tho disorder, and increased
a hundred-fold the number of the rioters, in order to alarm the
city authorities, and banish all idea of repressing riots which
were represented as so formidable. This conspiracy of falsehood
was not unsuccessful, and the mayors of several cities, even those
who had publicly entertained the Nuncio some months before,
DOW entreated him to keep himself concealed, and shorten his
stay, in their fear at the prospect of a riot which it would re-
quire all their limited forces to keep in check.

But the unbridling of every bad passion was an undeniable
proof of the good realized by the memorable mission of Arch-
bishop Bedini. For infidelity and socialism, the Papacy is the
great enemy to combat. As, in the time of Voltaire, the cry
was, " We must crush it," or at least wound it in America ;
for six months they employed successively falsehood, calumny,
menaces, insults, the press, the pulpit, the riot, and the dirk of
the assassin. These machinations sowed with thorns the painful
way of the mild and illustrious Pontifical envoy ; but on leaving
New York, he nevertheless bore precious consolations. He left
the Catholics of the United States filled with admiration of his
virtues and angelical patience. He had witnessed their attach-
ment to the chair of Peter, and he had powerfully contributed

520

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

to incrcaso it in their hearts. Ilo liad «hown the divided Prot-
estants the august spectaclo of unity in the prouiptuess of the
bishops of the United States and Canada to honor the repre-
sentative of the Holy See, and to give him infurination as to
their respective dioceses. Those are important rcsuUs, which still
subsist, now that the clamors of impiety have died away.*

CnAPTEll XXVIII.

1854-1850.
Boaction agaiust the Catholics— Organization of tho Know-Nuthings,

As we have said, the Americans, generally, kept aloof from
the manifestations against tho Nuncio-apostolic, as the Germans
themselves avowed. Still, Protestant fanaticism, dormant since
the riots of 1844, was aroused by the anti-Catholic ravings of
the political refugees of 1848, and especially by the envenomed
preachings of Gavazzi ; and a new coalition against the Catholics

* Archbishop Bedini had engraved at Now York, in 1854, a copy cf tho
Madonna of Rimini, in order to distribute it among the Catholics, as a re-
membrance of his misf^ion, and to increase devotion to tho Blessed Virgin.
This cntrraving had the follow ng inscription, with tho arms of the noble
prelate :

To the Catholics

Of the United States and Canada,

C. Bedini, Archbisliop of Thebes, Apostolic Nuncio,

Edifled and Grateful,

presents this picture

of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God.

It was while Archbishop Bedini was pro-legate at Bologna in 1850, 1851,
that the Madonna in the Church of Santa Chiara, at Eimini, several times
miraculously moved the eyes.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

621

led Trot-
\» of tho
le repre-
on us to
hich still

loof from

Germans
ant since
Fivings of
enomed
CatholicH

jpy cf the

as a re-

jd Virgin.

tho uoble

]50, 1851,
Iral times

was formed in Am shades of socret oath-bound clubs. The ene-
mies of nligioii, known ten years before as Nativca, now gave
their organization a new name, without changing its character;
and the Know-N(^things soon adopted a system of provocation and
outrage against the Catholics. The name they chose characterizes
well this class of fanatics, whose ignorance is pitiable, and who,
since the days of Luther, have learned no truths, and forgotten
no fable. They still seek to celebrate by acts of Vandalism tho
emancipation of their reason, and believe that, by destroying
churches, they will destroy Catholitnty. Their first plan was to
employ mad preachers to declaim against Popery in the j)ublic
streets and scpiares, in hopes of provoking the Catholics, and es-
pecially tho Irish Catholics, to resent their insolence. Then,
after the precedent of 1844, they rush on the Catholics ; the
alarm is given, the conspirators flock together from all sides,
under the pretext of protecting liberty of speech, and the mob
hurries to the nearest church, already marked out in their coun-
cils for the vengeance of impiety.

Tn tlu month of December, 18513, tumultuous meetings took
j>iace at New York, in consequence of the preaching in tho
wrt^ts of a porter named 1'ar.sotis. The militia were called
•out, but in consequence of a letter from Archbishop Hughes,
who recommended the Catholics to keep aloof from all such
gatherings, no collision gratified the efforts of malice. Sunday
after Sunday, Parsons thundered away against the Pope and
the Church, surrounded by an armed band. Orr, a madman,
■who assumed the name of the Angel Gabriel, and whose path in
Scotland and Guiana may be traced in fire and blood, next fol-
lowed the same course ; and ere long preaching in the open air
became the order of the day in the principal cities of the United
States ; and although the Catholics bore these insults without com-
plaint, they did not, withal, escape being frequently the victims of
passions excited by their enemies. On the -id of July, 1854, a

622

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

It:

<< ; i

(• 3

furious mob rushed on the church of Manchester, in the State of
New Hampshire, and destroyed it from top to bottom. The riot
Jasted for two days, and all the houses inhabited by Catholics
suft'ered more or less. On the same day, and in the same State,
the church of Dorchester was destroyed by an explosion, the
Know-Nothings having blown it up with powder. On the 8th
of July, at Bath, in the State of Maine, a mob, led by the furi-
ous Orr, burst in the church doors ; and while some made a pile
of the pulpit and altar, others climbed the steeple and tore down
the cross. Then the whole church was reduced to ashes, in pres-
ence of a considerable crowd, and amid the exulting cries of the
sacrilegious incendiaries. A year after, on Sunday, November
18th, 1855, the Right Rev. David W. Bacon, the newly conse-
crated Bishop of Portland, attempted to lay the corner-stone of a
new church on the site of that destroyed, but the people would
not permit it ; a mob took possession of the place, overthrew all
that had been prepared for the ceremony, broke the crosses, and
beat all who showed any disapprobation of their conduct.

On the 4th of September, 1854, the German church at New-
ark, in the State of New Jersey, was demolished in broad day-
light, by an Orange procession from New York, on the pretext
that a pistol had been fired on the procession from a window in
the church. The assertion was entirely destitute of foundation,
as all the independent papers admitted, and as the judicial in-
vestigation proved. The Socialist paper of New York, the
Tribune, on this occasion observed justly, " It is worthy of re-
mark, '' u while five or six Catholic churches in this country
have been destroyed or ruined by an excited populace, not a sin-
gle Protestant church can be pointed out which Catholics have
even thought of attacking."

The procession was armed, and, in firing on the spectators,
killed several ; but even this could not provoke any breach of
the peace on the part of the Catholics.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

623

New-
d day-
n'etext
low in
liition,
al in-
, the
of re-
uutry
a sin-
have

|ators,
[jh of

On the 8th of November in the same year, the day after an
e/ection, in which the Know-Nothings had ahnost everywhere
triumphed, the latter celebrated their victory by attacking a
Catholic church at Williamsburg, near New York. They tore
down the railing, broke in the doors, and carried off the cross in
triumph to their place of meeting. Insult to the symbol of our
redemption, the sign of the Son of Man, is indeed the noblest of
exploits in their eyes. The military arrived just as they were
going to set fire to the church, and after arresting the trustees
and such Catholics as they found, protected the church from
ruin. As usual, the rioters protended that they had been pro-
voked by the Catholics, and that they wished to avenge the
death of one of their party killed during the election ; but the
inquest proved that the principal author of the troubles, a man
named Lee, arrested as the murderer, was an Orangeman spe-
cially appointed to make trouble.

Thus our churches, reared at the expense of so many sacrifices
and liberal alms, are at the mercy of the first miscreant ; for in
not one single instance on record in the whole United States of
America has an author or promoter of such a work of destruc-
tion been punished, and in very few instances has even the mock-
ery of a judicial prosecution been adopted. And while the mob,
unchecked and unpunished, seeks to destroy the edifice, the
State governments, under the impulse of the same feeling, pass
laws to confiscate all the property held by the Catholic prelates
and clergy for pious and charitable uses.

But the fanaticism is not content with destroying the church,
or seizing the property, it sought also to intimidate the clergy ;
and two events, one in the North and the other in the South, ex-
cited alarm amid the Catholic population.

In the spring of 1854, Father John Bapst, a Jesuit, and pastor
of the Catholics at Ellsworth in the State of Maine, asked the
ocnoolmasters to exempt the Catholic children from reading the

:.«.!

^ ■ ;

521

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Protestant version of the Bible; and he made his request so
mildly that the teachers conformed. The school-committee,
however, interfered, and ordered the teachers to make the Cath-
olic children read the Protestant Bible under pain of expulsion.
The Catholics appealed to the competent tribunal to establish
their rights, and this step so exasperated the fanatics against Fa-
ther Bapst, that the town-meeting, espousing the cause of the
school-committee, adopted the following resolution, inscribed on
the records of the town on the 8th of July, 1854:

" Whereas we have reasons to believe that we are indebted to
one John Bapst, S. J., Catholic priest, for the luxury of the pres-
cut lawsuit, now enjoyed by the school-committee of Ellsworth,
therefore

" Resolved^ That should the said Bapst be found again on Ells-
worth soil, we manifest our gratitude for his kindly interference
with our free schools and attempts to banish the Bible therefrom,
by procuring for him and trying on an entire suit of new clothes,
Kuch as cannot be found at the shop of any tailor, and that thus
apparelled he be presented with a free ticket to leave Ellsworth
upon the first railroad operation that may go into eflfect."

This resolution, welcomed with applause, passed without a dis-
senting voice, and the council, far from blushing at the act, de-
cided that it should be published in the two papers of the place.

Father Bapst, who resides at Bangor, went to Ellsworth on
Saturday, the 14th of October, to celebrate Mass there the next
day. In the evening, at a meeting of the two fire companies of
Ellsworth, it was proposed and adopted to put in execution the
resolution of the council ; and about nine o'clock in the evening
the mob surrounded the house of Mr. Kent, whose hospitality
the missionary was enjoying, and where he was actually hearing
confessions. Father Bapst was dragged out of the house, stripped
of his clothes, placed on a rail, and borne along amid the taunts
aud insults of these hellhounds, till the rail breaking dashed on

IN THE UNITED STATES.

625

squest so
mmittee,
,he Cath-
ixpulsion.
establish
jainst Fa-
80 of the
ciibed ou

debtee! to

the pres-

Ellsworth,

in on EUs-
■tei'fereiico
Lherefioni,
w clothes,
that thus
Ellsworth

L 11

lout a dis-

Le act, de-

jhe place.

^orth on

the next

ipanies of

Ltion the

evening

)spitality

hearing

stripped

le taunts

ished on

the ground the victim of this outrage.* Then they covered his
naked body with melted tar, and rolling him in feathcis left him.
" It would be impossible," wrote an eye-witness, " to repeat the
horrible blasphemies and indecencies of that terrible night ; but
all that the imagination can conceive short of absolute mutilation
and bloodshed was accomplished by the impious wretches. The
outrage lasted two hours, a cold rain falling all the while."

When his assailants, weary with tormenting him, le^* Father
Bapst amid the mud, rain, and darkness, he dragged himself
alone to the house of his host, and spent a long time in cleansing
himself from the filth, tar, and feathers with which he had been
covered. In order to cahu his moral and physical suffeiings,
Mr. Kent pressed him to take some food, or at least a drink ; but
it was past midnight, and the heroic priest, who had come to
celebrate Mass on Sunday, preferred to bear the burning thirst
rather than break his fast. " Sitio," said his Divine Master. Fa-
ther Bapst spent the rest of the night sleepless, in the most vio-
lent nervous agitation, but in the morning his duties as a pastor
enabled him to surmount his suffering, and at the usual hour he
celebrated Mass before the horror-stricken Catholics of Ells-
worth.f

The outrage excited general indignation throughout the United
States, and though the grand jury refused to prosecute the well-
known authors of this horrid wrong, the Know-Nothings gener-
ally felt that they had gone too far. The malefactors had robbed
Father Bapst of his watch and purse. The Protestants of Ban-
gor made up a subscription to otier the Jesuit a beautiful gold

* One at all events assumed the person of the arch-fiend, exclaiming : " So
•we treated Jesus Christ."

t Father John Bapst was born at La Roche, canton of Fribourg, in 1815,
and was brouglit up at the Jesuit College in that city. There too he entered
the Society of Jesus, and remained till 1848, when he was sent to Maine.
He was at first employed on the Indian missions, and then stationed at
Bangor.

S26

THE CATHOLIC ClIUKCH

I i

wntch, and accompanied the present with an address, in which
they eloquently protested against the conduct of the people of
Ellsworth.

Some months after, on the 12th of May, 1855, another Jesuit,
Father F. Nashon, was assaulted near Mobile and violently beat-
en ; and he was told that he should meet a similar treatment as
often as he should attempt to go and say Mass in the village of
Dog River Factory.

We do not make the leaders of the Know-Nothing party re-
sponsible for all the crimes of which we have only given those
of the blackest dye. But when men preach fanaticism, we can-
not be astonished at their exciting such hatred ; If the wind is
sown, the whirlwind must be reaped. Ere long the rapid de-
velopment of their secret organization enabled the plotters to
think that legal means would suffice to check the onward march
of Catholicity. The elections of November, 1854, had sent to
the State Assemblies many members of the new party. Their
influence was inimediately felt, and in the month of March, 1855,
the New York Legislature enacted, as we have elsewhere shown,
that ivery legacy or donation for pious or charitable uses should
be null unless made to a body of trustees, and in other ways em-
barrassing the Catholic bishops and clergy in canyiug out the
discipline of the Church. In some cases the State absolutely
cofiscated the property, unless the Catholics would submit to be
Protestantized to suit the caprice of a Calvinist legislature.

On its side, the Legislature of Massachusetts, vt'hich was made
up to a considerable extent of Protestant ministers, appointed a
committee to inspect the in . ior of the convents ; but the infa-
mous conduct of this committee, and the examinations to wliich
it led, covered with opprobrium the instigators of this inquisito-
rial measure. In their visit to a house of Sisters of Notre Dame,
at Roxbury, the members of the committee acted with the gross-
est indecency ; in the\i' excursion to Lowell, one of the commit-

IN THE UNITED STATES.

627

1 wliicli
eople of

r Jesuit,
tly beat-
tment as
illage of

party re-
en those
we can-
e wind is
rapid de-
iotters to
id march
,d sent to
Their
[ch, 1855,
•e shown,
;s should
tvays em-
out the
absolutely
ait to be
■e.

as made
ointed a
he infa-
o which
Inquisito-
le I>ame,
lie (jross-
Icomrait-

tee was accompanied by a loose woman, whose expenses he
charged to the v'^tate ; and these very fair samples of Massachu-
setts guardians of public morals, going to see whether any dis-
orders existed in Catholic convents, themselves gave every ex-
ample of dishonesty and drbauchery. The whole Know-Nothing
party blushed at the dishonor they had drawn upon themselves,
and to satisfy the public clamor expelled Mr. Hiss, one of their
members, making him the scapegoat.

Early in June, 1855, a National Convention of Know-Nothings
met at Philadelphia, and after stormy debates published its party
profession of faith. This document abounds in common-places,
such as telling us that offices are made for men, not men for
offices. The following are the articles which concern Catholics:

"VIII. Resistance to the aggressive policy and corrupting
tendencies of the Roman Catholic Church in our country by the
advancement to all political stations — executive, legislative, ju-
dicial, or diplomatic — of those only who do not hold civil alle-
giance, directly or indirectly, to any foreign power, whether ec-
clesiastical or civil, and who are Americans by birth, education,
and training — thus fulfilling the maxim, ' Americans only shall
govern America.' The protection of all citizens in the legal and
proper exercise of their civil and religious rights and privileges ;
the maintenance of the right of every man to full, imrestrained,
and peaceful enjoyment of his own religious opinions and wor-
ship, and a jealous resistance to all attempts by any sect, denom-
ination, or church to obtain an ascendency over any other in the
State, by means of any special privileges or exemptions, by any
political combination of its members, or by a division of their
civil allegiance with any foreign power, po' .atate, or ecclesiastic.

" XL The education of the youth of our country in schools
provided by the State, which schools shall be common to all,
without distinction of creed or party, and free from any influence
or direction of a denominational or partisan character. And in-

' »•

528

THE CATHOLIC CHUltCH

asmuch as Christianity, by the constitutions of nearly all the
States, hy the decisions of the most eminent j-adicial autliorities,
and by the consent of the people of America, is considered an
element of our political system, and as the Holy Bible is at once
the source of Christianity and the depository and fountain of all
civil and religious freedom, -vvo oppose every attempt to exclude
it from the schools thus established in the States."

The articles may be resumed in these two words : " In the
name of unfettered liberty of worship, Catholics shall be excluded
from all employments and their cliildren shall be compelled to
frequent schools where oveiy effort shall be used to make them
Protestants." All understand that the Know-Nothinijs do not
believe that the Pope in any way requires the obedience of the
Catholics of the United States in matters of state. But this con-
spiracy would not dare to doom any class of citizens to civil in-
capacity, if it could not by some pretext treat them as subjects
of a foreign power. On this plea Catholics are adjudged to be
royalists, whose participation in the public offices would compro-
mise the safety of the Republic ; and every measure of hostility
against them, far from being a violation of the Constitution, be-
comes a meritorious action in defence of liberty ! On such prin-
ciples, the votary of the most degraded sect may make laws for
the Republic ; the impostor prophet of the Mormons may be
elected President and transfer his seraglio to Washington, but
the most virtuous Catholic cannot drive a hack.

The article relative to education presents no less contradiction
than that which begins by excluding Catholics from office, and
closes by promising to protect all citizens in their civil and re-
ligious rights. They wish to compel all children to frequent the
public schools ; they declare that these shall have no religious
character, and yet they insist on Living read there, what is called
and is, the Protestant version of the Bible, a version rejected by
Catholics as mutilated and corrupt. They wish to cart the rising

all tlie
Lorities,
ircd au
at onco
11 of all
exclude

'In the
ixcluded
elled to
ke tlicm
i do not
e of tlie
this con-
civil in-
siibjects
'ed to be
conipro-
,hostility
tiou, be-
ch prin-
aws for
may be
[ton, but

ladiction
ice, an*.!
and re-
lent the
leligioua
Is called
|cted by
rising

IN THE UNITED STATES.

529

generations in the mould of the State ; they hope to make Prot-
estants, but in fact they I'ear infidels.

This solicitude for the Bible, this enthusiasm for public schools,
this pretended dread of the usurpations of Rome, had been, as
we have seen, the pretext of the native movement of 1844 ; and
to complete the resemblance of the two epochs, the Louisville
riots are a companion-picture to those of Philadelphia. Already
had the St. Louis elections of 1854, closed by a slaughter of
adopted citizens ; but the events at Louisville were still more
deplorable. On the Gth of August, 1855, at the occasion of the
elections, tlie Know-Nothings rushed on the Catholics, many
houses were burned or pillaged, more than twenty persons per-
ished, some in the flames, others beneath the murderous hand of
the assassin, who spared not even women or children. By insin-
uations worse than open calumny the party papers pretended
that the Catholic clergy, and even the Bishop, excited the faith-
ful to acts of violence. The mob advanced on the Cathedral,
threatening to set it on firo, under pretence that the Catholics
had amassed arms there. At this juncture Bishop Spalding con-
fided the keys of hi^ ithedral to the Mayor, who was notoriously
a Kuow-Nothing, and he, alarmed at the responsibility thrown
upon him, calmed the rioters.

Such is the great anti-Catholic movement of 1853-6 ; and we
see how fearfully the spirit of fanaticism has unread within the
last thirty years, fanned by the pulpit and the press, joint insti-
gators of religious hatred. The destruction of the Ursuline con-
vent at Charlestown in 1834 was universally condemned ; the
culprits were arraigned and a trial conducted with considerable
fairness, although the jury acquitted the offenders. In the Na-
tive movement ten years later, churches and private dwellings
were destroyed at Philadelphia, but here too the city by making
good the loss at least in part condemned the act, as it had sought
by troops to quell the riot. But when after the lapse of another

530

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

decade, the feeling evinces itself by overt acts, it is not in one
place, but in the whole length and breadth of the country; it is
in the mob and the legislature ; in the fire company and the
iuiiitia; in the bar and the bench. The church destioyed, the
priest a martyr, the Nuncio of His Holiness all but assassinated;
the convent violated ; the jury-box perjured to acquit the guilty ;
the legislature framing laws to seize the Catholic property ; the
general government officially insulting the first representative of
the Holy See ; — the picture is a sad but a tiue one. As the
Sovereign Pontiff, who as the Bishop of all Catholic Bishops,
feels for his persecuted spiritual children and cannot address the
State governments which have no external existence as sovereign
States, he well addresses to the general government of the United
States, in the person of the President, a prayer for their relief.
" Inasmuch as we have been intrusted by Divine commission with
the care of the Lord'a flock throughout the world, we cannot al-
low this opportunity to pass without earnestly entreating you to
extend your protection to the Catholics inhabiting those regions,
and to shifcM them at all times with yuur power and authority."

not in one
intry; it is
ny and the
itioved, tlio
siissiniitetl ;
the guilty ;
perty ; the
entiitive of
3. As the
ic Bishops,
iddress the
i* sovereign
the United
their relief,
ission with

cannot al-
ng you to
se regions,
uthority."

IN THE UNITED STATES.

531

CONCLUSIOJ^.

<"^ Acs «l,ich l,„ve been (muZtT, "'''' "'"' "'« «"-

o^r wl,ich wo have t.avot ^T' " '■'="°''*^' "" "■- Acid
Jn the poriion pl„„ied i,v Frn,™ ... i c •

f«ble, and f„„„, absc-bodTn X , " ,^"' '''°^^ -'""- "c-e

»'"'ggle for oxtaonoo; ponal l!«f, """•" "^"'^"''"'y ''"d to

•he lai,y of civil righ, .Cd etr,. ""^r "" "'"'S-"' ^'P'^-d
'0 >he rank of tbot^o L \° r^' '^'''y^ 'educing ,,i.„
'«d of Catbolicity, which ,i„L 7°'""°" "'^S"" in a ha-

g-e s„„,e of the t„ oonsS on 'tlT'^ "'^ "^ <^^°"«'- and
erance, eventuated however in' „ ' V"^ "' '''''S''^"^ ""ol-
g-e..a, government disavoVi:;:":! 7 ^""'^ "'■ "«"--
'el.g,on, profe^i„g to treat all c^el'o "™.''" "'^'*" "^

«»f day actually „ati„„ tkkT^l°" 'T""" *«»'"«. «"d in
States to do the same-a^d v * ^ "' '"' "'S^'S European
--3 bavin, exclusive Tuthl: tv Ir:,:;'''' '""' ^"™-
State churchee, others with di„W' , '""'"' """« '"'h

»^---. doctrine, .aw;';eir;:|,l-;£- '"e follower

532

THE CATHOLIC ClIL'llClI

Still tlie impulse had boon given ; through the iiifluerico of
Catholic Fiance, Cntholieity in America was free. In what
foiined the United States in 178H there were in the Atlantic
colonies, chietly ^faryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, about
forty-five thousand Cuthulies; in the 'tiorthwest and in Illinois
ten thousand more.* Louisiana, Hince admitted into the Union,
had then a population of fifteen thousand ;t Florida, Texas,J New-
Mexico, and California at least ten thousand more. The do-
Bcendants of these widely sepaiated Catholics form at the present
day one portion of the faithful in the United States, and if they
have multiplied in the same proportion as the rest of the people,
must now be represented by 500,000.§

Another source of addition to the number of Catholics lias
been emigration, first from Ireland and latteily from Germany ;
it came slowly at first, but for some years became a tide impar-
alleled in history. The first Irish emigrants were chiefly Prot-
estant't, ihe later however Catholics, while the Germans are about
equady divided. The churches in the North and East were at
first almost composed of Irish Catholics; at this time they and
their descendants form the mass of the faithful. Of the total
immigration and its increase, one half, or 2,750,000, may be

* Including Catholic Indians in Maine, New York, and Ohio.

+ Gayarr(5.

X Texas in 1778, according to Fatlicr Morfl, contained 8103 souls.

§ Miilthns supposes a people to quadruple by natural propagation in 90
years; but we know that in Canada 65,000 French in 1763 are now repre-
isented by over 700,000, which is more than decupling. But as the Americans
are less prolific, we have taken seven as the medium, and tins tallies exactly
with the present population. Tlie United States at the peace
contained three millions, which septupled would give 21,000,000

Emigration has since given three and a half millions, but as
this has been chiefly within the last twenty-five years, and more
than that is needed to double, we will allow for its increase two
millions 6,500,000

Population of the United States in 1856 by this calculation,

and in fact - - 20,500,000

ucuce of
In what
Atlantic
a, about
1 Illinois
le Union,
cas,t New
The do-
le present
d if they
[le people,

holies has
Germany ;
ide unpar-
iefly Trot-
i are about
ist were at
. they and
f the total
may be

Ration in 90
now repre-
Ainericans

lllios exitctly

21,000,000

IN THE UNITED STATES.

533

claimed as Catholic, which will give a« the whole number of tho
children of the Church in the United States, abi»ut three and a
half millions, which is the estimate actually f(jrmcd by the illus-
trious Archbishop of New York in a recent lecture.*

This immigration came without its proportionate number of
piicsts ; many of the immigrants were ignorant, others careless,
others in time ashamed of their religion, and as the lecture truly
declares, "hundreds of thousands of the descendants of the Cath-
olic immigrants have fallen away from their religion."

But while such a loss took place when churches and priests
were few ; when Catholic schools, academies, and colleges were
unknown ; when the Protestant poorhouso or asylum was the
only refuge of the helpless Catholic, such is no longer the case,
except in the densely crowded cities of the Atlantic shore. Still
Catholicity lost many by these defections ; and the calculations
would show this strikingly, had not the loss of some been made
up, as it ever is in God's providence, by the vocation of others.
Just as at the Reformation,

" India rcpair'd half Europe's loss,"

SO in the United States in many ways, by his duly appointed
ministers, by the paths of learning and study, by the imconscious
layman, nay even by the violence of the enemies of the Church,
God in liis mercy has brought many to the faith. These con-
versions, of which the remarkable ones alone are chronicled, have
been and continue to be very numerous, few clergymen on the
mission being deprived of the consolation of receiving some every
year, and one great movement having, as we show, given to the
cause of truth the noblest and purest of the clei'gy and laity of
the Episcopal Church.

6,500,000
20,500,000

* Present Condition and Proapecta of tlie Catliolic Church in tlio United
States, delivered be fore the Young Catholic's Friend Society of Baltimore,
January 17, 1856.

1 ;

( i

I' I i

684

THE CATnOLIC CHURCn

Sucli nre the component pfti'ts of the Cutholic body now blend-
ed into one liarnioiiions vliolc.

And what has been its pr<»<:ficRs! From the time when lea-
ther Carroll as newly appoiiiteil bishttp n-ccivi'd petitions from
his Indian (;Iiii(h'en in Maine, the fow CatliolicH nt Hoston and
New York, the Fiench at Caliokia, down to our day, when seven
archbishopR and thirty-five bishops govern the wide-spread
Church, when in two thousand cliurches and stations the holy
sacrifice is reguhirly ofl'crcd, and almost every existing religious
order in the Church has euinmunitios here ministering to the
Boul and body, nursing vocations to the sanctuary and cloister
amid a people absorbed above all others in the cares and turmoil
of life.

Catholicity in America has its literature, its organs, whose
power is felt, felt so much that it is all on the part of the Prot-
estants carefully avoided. In every department their power is
acknowledged : Brownson, a philosopher of extraordinary abil-
ity, has for years in his Review handled every question of vital
interest with skilful learning and the depth of genius; Arch-
bishops Kenrick and Hughes, Bishops England, Spalding, and
O'Connor, amid their laborious duties have defended the
Catholic cause, and given to Catholic doctrines that lucid
explanation which leaves the maligner no ground for a pre-
text of ignorance ; w hile the Rev. Doctors White and Pise in
periodicals, and the talented converts McMasters, Huntington,
Major, Rosecrantz, and Chandler in the editorial chair, have
given the Catholics able organs to refute the calumnies daily
raised against them, and to expose mendacity to the woild.
All these too, and others whose names might be added, by le«-
tures in vaiious parts of the country give solid instruction and
pleasing entertainment, which is evidently appreciated.

A culminating point seems to have aiTived. Tiie great immi-
gration has ceased for a time, and that time is precious to organ*

bletid-

vlicn Fa-
una from
)eton ami
len sovcn
ilc-spread
the holy
religious
ig to the
k1 cloister
id turmoil

119, whose
the Trot-
power is
nary abil-
of vital
; Arch-
ing, and
ded the
lat lucid
)r a pic-
Pise ill
ntington,
air, have
ies daily
10 world.
.1, by lc«-
clion and

IN THE UNITED STATES.

585

izc and form the Catholic congregationH already existing, and sco
that the body now sustain none of the losses which poverty foi-
incijy made unavoidahle.

"What then," a^k8 the iliustiious Archbishop of New Yoik,
"what is the prospect with rcgaid to ti»e Catholic religion? The
prospect is, that it is going on incieasing by the medium of Cath-
olics born in this countiy. 'I !ir prospect with superior advan-
tages, and the benefits of i struction in almost every part of the
country, and the piesonce of priests looking to s])iiituul interes's,
is that Catholics will instil into their ('.'scendants the knowledge
of their religion, and the les^ons of .iitue w ich tli.'y have re-
ceived, and which they piize moic than li*> And this religion
will extend, not by miraculouB means, but will hold it . own fiom
the monicnt that imihigratiop dinn iif.'Ss. It will noi lapse and
iall away into indifference, much le&ci into infidelity."

;at inimi-
(to organ-

APPENDIX.

BULL OF niS HOLINESS POPE PTUS VI., CONSTITUTIIn'G THE
NEW SEE OF BALTIMORE.*

FOR THE PERPETUAL MEMORY OF THE THING.

When, from the eminence of our npoatolical station, we bend our attention
to tlie different regions of the earth, in order to fulfil, to the utmost extent
of our power, the duty which our Lord has imposed upon our un worthiness,
of ruling and feeding hia flock ; our care and solicitude are particularly en-
gaged, that the faithful of Christ, who, dispersed through various provinces,
are united with us by Catholic communion, may be governed by their proper
pastors, and diligently instructed by them in the discipline of evangelical
life and doctrine. For it is our principle, tliat they, who relying on the Di-
vine assistance, have regulated their lives and manners, agreeably to the
precepts of Christian wisdom, ought so to command their own passions, as
to promote, by the pursuit of justice, their own and their neighbor's spiritual
advantage ; and that they, who luvve received from their bishops, and, by
checking the intemperance of self-wisdom, have steadily adhered to the
heavenly doctrine delivered by Christ to the Catholic Church, should not be
carried away by every wind of doctrine ; but, grounded on tin aulliority of
Divine revelation, should reject the new and varying doctriuci of men,
which endanger the tranquillity of government— and rest in tlio unchange-
able faith of the Catholic Church. For in the present degeneracy of corrupt
manners, into which human nature, ever resisting the f weet yoke of Christ,
is hurried, and in the pride of talents and knowledge, which disdains to
submit the opinions and dreams of men to the evangelical truth delivered
by Jesus Clirist, support must be given by that heavenly authority, whiclx
is intrusted to the Catholic Church, as to a steady pillar and solid founda-
tion, which shall never fail, that from her voice and instructions, mankind
may learn the objects of their faith and the rules of their conduct, not only
for the obtaining of eternal salvation, but also for the regulation of thia Ufa

• From thp Short Account of the estfiblishment of tlio new See of Baltimore. In Mary-
land. Hiid of cunaecratitig the lit. Buv. Jubu Carroll first Bishop tbereoC Philadelphia,
1791, page 11.

|i ' 1.1!

540

APPENDIX.

nnd the nin'mtniiiiiifT of wmcoril in tlic society of tiii!* enrtlily city. Now fliis
V'har.ijo of tcacliiiitr and niliiiir, tirst jziven to tiic apostles, ami especially to
St. Peter, the prince of tiie apo^ties, on whom alone tlie (.'linrcli is built, and
to whom our Loril and IJedecnicr intni.-ted the fcedinijr of his land)s and of
Ills sheep, has been derived, in due order of sncccssion, to ]jislioi)s, and es-
pecially to the Konian Pontilts, successors of St. Peter and heirs of his power
and dijjrnity, thut thereby it might be nuule evident, that the t:ates of hell
can never prevail against t!ie Churcli, nnd that the Divijie Founder of it will
over assist it to the consuinniiition of ages, bo that neither in the depravity
of morals, nor iii the fluctuation of novel ojiinions, the episcopal succession
fihall ever fail, or the bark of Peter be sunk. Wherefore it having reached
our ears, that in the flourisliing commonwealth of the Thirteen American
States, many I'aitliful Christians, united in coinnuinion with the chair of Pe-
ter, in which the centre of Cath.olic unity is !i.\eii, and governed in their
spiritual concerns by their own priests having care of souls, earnestly desire
that a Bishop may be appointed over them, to exercise the functions of epis-
copal order, to feed them more largely with the food of salutary doctrine,
and to guard more carefully that portion of the Catholic flock ; we willingly
embraced this opportunity, which the grace of Almighty Cod has afforded
us, to provide those distant regions with the comfort and ministry of a
Catholic IVishop. And that this might bo eHcctod more successfully iind ac-
cording to the rules of the sacied canons, we commissioned our venerable
brethren, the Cardinals of the Holy Koman Church, directors of the Congre-
gation de pro/toffcindd Jide, to nv.iui\<xii this business with the greatest care,
nnd to make a report to us. It was thcrclbre appointed by their decree, ap-
proved by us, and published the twelfth day of Jidy, of the last year, tiuit
the priests who lawt'ully exercise the sacred ministry, ami have care of souls,
in the United States of America, should be empowered to advise together,
and to determine, first, in what town the episcopal See ought to be erected ;
and next, who of the aforesaid jiriests appeared the most wiirtliy and proper
to be promoted to this important charge, whom we, for this first time only,
and by special grace, permitted the said priests to elect and to present to
this apostolical See. In obedience to this decree, the aforesaid priests, exer-
cising the cure of souls, in he United States of America, unanimously
agreed, that a IMsliop with ordinary jurisdiction ought to he established in
the town of Baltimore ; because this town, situate in Maryland, which prov-
ince the greater part of the priests and of the faithful inhabit, appeared the
most conveniently placed for intercourse with the otlier States, nnd because
from this province Catholic religion and faith had been propagated into the
others. And at the time appointed for the election, they laeing assembled
together, the sacrifice of holy mass being celebrated, nnd the grace nnd as-
sistance of the Holy (Thost being implored, the votes of all present were ta-
ken, and of twenty six priests who were assembled, twenty-four gave their
votes for our beloved son John Carroll, wliom they judged the most proper
to support the burden of episcopacy ; and sent an autheptic instrument of
the whole transaction to the aforesaid Congregation of Cardinals. >i0w all
things being maturely weighed and considered in this Congregation, it was

APPENDIX.

641

ap.

easily agreed, that the interests and increase of Catholic religion wonld ba
greatly promoted, if an episcopal See were erected at Baltimore, and the said
John Carroll were appointed the Bishop of it. AVo, therefore (_to whom thia
opinion has been reported by our beloved son. Cardinal Antonclli, prefect of
the said Congregation, having notliing more at heart, than to insure success
to whatever tends to the propagation of true religion and to the honor and
increase of the Catholic Church), by the plenitude of our apostolical power,
and by tlic tenor of thci?e presents, do establish and erect the aforesaid town
of Baltimore into an episcopal See forever, for one Bishop to be chosen by
us in all future vacancies; and we therefore, by the ajiostolical authority
aforesaid, do allow, grant, and permit to the Bisjiop of the said city, and to
his successors in all future times, to exercise episcopal power and jurisdic-
tion, and to hold and enjoy all and every right and privilege of order and
jurisdiction, and of every other episcopal function, which Bishops, constitu-
ted in other places, are empowered to hold and enjoy in their respective
churches, cities, and dioceses, by right, custom, or by other means, by gen-
eral iirivilcges, graces, indults, and apostolical dispensations, together with
all pre-eminences, honors, immunities, graces, and favors, which other ''a-
thedral Churches, by right or custom, or in any other sort, have, liold, and
enjoy. We moreover decree and declare the said episcopal See, thus erect-
ed, to be subject or suffragan to no metropolitan right or jurisdiction, but to
be forever subject immediately to us and to our successors the Ronum Pon-
tilTs, and to this apostolical See. And till another opport'jnity shall be pre-
sented to us, of establishing other Catholic. Bishops in the United States of
America, and till other dispositions shall be made by this apo.stolical See, we
declare, by our apostolical authority, all the faitliful of Christ, living in
Catholic communion, as well ecclesiastics as seculars, and all the clergy and
people dwelling in the aforesaid United States of America, though hitherto
they may have been subject to other Bishops of other dioceses, to be hence-
forward subject to the Bishop of Baltimore in all future times : and to this
Bishop, and to his successors, we impart power to curb and check, without
appeal, all persons who may contradict or oppose their ord,,rs ; to vi.iit per-
sonally or by deputies all Catholic churches; to remove abuses; to correct
the manners of the faithful ; and t ■ ^orform all things, which other Bishops
'n their respective dioceses are aeeu tomed to do and perform, saving in all
'hings our own authority, and that of this apostolical See. And, whcicas,
by special grant, and for this first time only, we have allowed the priests,
exercising the cure of souls in the United States of America, to elect a person
to be appointed Bishop by us, and almost all theii votes have been given to
nur belov. ! son, John Carroll, Priest; we being otherwise certified of his
faith, prudence, piety, and vil, forasmuch as by •"■,; nandate he hath da-
ring the late years directed the spiritual governmetn l souls, do Ibereforo,
by the plenitude of our authority, declare, create, i^-point, and cunstitute
the said John Carroll, Bishop and pastor of the said chur>''b if Baltimore,
granting to him the faculty of receiving the rite of conseci..,i n from any
Catholic Bishop holding communion with the apostolical See, assisted by
two ecclesiastics, vested witii some dignity, in case that two Bishops cannot

542

APPENDIX.

be had, flrht liaviriff taken the usual oath, accorfT.nc^ to t)ic Roman Pontiflcal.
And we ooinmiBi>Jon tlie said Bisliop elect, to i^reot a cnnich in ^^lo said city
of Bultimfic, in form of a Cathedral chur':!i, iuinnuch at. the fiims and cir-
cumstancei may allo\v, to institute a body of <l;i'.'y depntod to Dl -ine wor-
ship, and U the service of the said churcii, nnd moreover to (.; v . 'visli an
episcopal seminary either in the sniie city (^r a'se.v'i'.re, ... lie .i), i judgfe
rnoiii'. expcdii>.'it, to administer ecde itistical .noome^^, and to ex^;cuti) all otl.er
tliinurs, which he shall tiunk .'ii the Lo'-d to \>v. -expedient for the increase of
Catiiolic faitii and the iu^iiijentution of the -.vovship and splendor of the
new-erected churt'i. Wc m '^over enjoin tlie said Bishop to obey tlio in-
junctions of our iiuierable bvttliren, tlie cardimi.o directors . f tiit sacred
congregation riti propaganda fuU , to i ansm!;. to them, at proi'er times, a re-
lation of his visitutioi' of his cii'.K h, and tu inkirni them of all thing's which
ho sliiil! judge to bo useful to the spiri'iml good and .... ution oftiie flock
trusted to his charge. We therefore dcc:ree, that these our letters are and
O'crbh'i;; be firm, vdld, and efficacious, aiul sIjuU obtain their full and eu-
tJro elicit, and be observed inviolably by all persons whom it now doth or
lisr^,. 'uir may concern ; and that all judges, ordinary and delegated, even
iiudiiyu- vif causes of the sacred aposloiiciil palace, and cardinals of the Holy
lie ii.ui 01ui''cli, !nust tlius judge and detine, depriving all and each of tliem
cf ill power and authority to judge or interpret in any otlier manner, and
declaring all to be null and void, if any ori*!, by any authority, should pre-
sume, either knowingly or unknowingly, to attempt any thing contrary
thereunto. Notwithstanding all apostolical, ,i-.reneral, or special constitutions
and ordinations, published in universal, provincial, and aynodical councils,
and all things contrary whatsoever.

Given at Rome, at St. Mary Major, under the Fisherman's King (Seal),

the Hth day of November, 1789, and in the 15th year of our Poa-

tiflcato.

DUPLICATE.

[L.S.3

K, CAED. BKASCUI ONESTI.

II.

MEMBERS OF THE SYNOD OF iroi-FATHERS OF THE PROVIN-
CIAL AND PLENARY COUNCILS.

NOTES ON THE MEMBERS OF THE fc^YNOD OF 1791.

Jaraea Pdlentz, S, J., V. C. for the whole dioc i , born in Germany, January

19, 1727, professed in 17oC.
James Frt.mbach, S. J., born in Germany, .'. t.'y 6, 1723, professed in

1760s d!-^d August, 1795.
Robert . rneux, S. J., V. G. of the So'- k^^i.. iJsstilct, born at Foruby, Lau-

APPENDIX.

548

are-

cashiro, June 24, 1738, professed November, 1757, died at Georgetown,
December 9, 1808.

Francis Antliony Fleming, V. G. of the Nortliern District.

Francis Clinrles Niitfot, President of tlie Scniinary of St. Sulpice.

Joiin Asliton, S. J., born in Maryland, May 24, 1748, first on the mission in
Yorkshire, died in 1814.

Leonard Nealo, S. J.

Charles Sewall, S. J., born in Maryland, July 4, 1744, sent to St. Omcrs in
1758, entered the Society of Jesus in 1764, died November 10, 1806.

Sylvester Boannan, born in Maryland, entered the Society in 1762. " With-
out much pretension to talents, he showed himself a diliifent and pre-
cious missionary in his native land, where God called him to Himself in
1797."

■William Ellinpr.

James Vanhutffel.

Kobert Plunket, S. J., born in England, April 23, 1752, entered the Society
in 1769, died in Maryland, in 1815.

Nicholas Cerfoumont.

Francis Beeston.

Lawrence (or Aloysius) Gressel, S. J., died 1793.

Joseph Eden.

Louis Cresar Delavau, Canon of Tours.

John Tessier.

Anthony Gamier.

John Bolton, S. J., born October 22, 1742, entered the Society in 1761, sent
soon after to Maryland, Pastor of St. Joseph's, Philadelphia, in 1791, died
September 9, 1807.

John Thayer, pastor of Boston, died at Limerick, February 5, 1815.

FiEST Provincial Council of Baltimork.

The theologians were —
SESirNART. — 1. Kev. Louis Deluol, S. S. S. Arrived in 1817 ; Professor of
Philosophy and Theology, and Superior; returned to France in No-
vember, 1849.
S. Kev. Edward Damphoux, S. S. S., Chaplain of the Carmelites in 1856.
ThtologUint (^ Bishop of Bardstown — Kev. F. P. Kenrick, now Archbishop of

Baltimore.
" '• CharUstonr-'RQv, S. Brute, died in 1839, Bishop of

Vincennos.
Cincinnati — Kev. Mr. De Barth, diod in 1844.
St. Louis — Kev. Aug. Jeanjean.
Boston — Kev. Anthony Blanc, now Archbishop of
New Orleans.
Administrator of Philadelphia — Kev. Michael Wheeler.
MatUr qf Ceremonies — Kev. JohnChanche, died in 1882, Bishop of Natchez.

l;l ' '

' '; 1

544 APPENDIX.

Second Council of B-vi-timoue (1833). See p. 181-2.

TiiiuD Council ok Baltimore (IBS'?).
List of the Fathers, Theologians, and Officers of the Council.

Baltimc/re Most Kev. S. Ecoleston, Archbisliop.

Eov. John J. Cluuohe, and Kcv. Poter Schroibor, Tho-
olo^jiiuiH.
St. Louis Risjht Rov. Joseph Rosati, Bishop.

Rev. Regis Loizol, Tiiooloffiim.
Boston Right Rov. B. J. Fouwick, Bisliop.

Rov. Th. J. Miillcrly, S. J., Tiiooloffinn.
Philadelphia Riglit Rov. F. P. Kenrick, Bishop of Arath,

Rov. L. do Bartii, Tlicologian.
Cincinnati Riglit Rev. J. B. Purccli, Bishop.

Rev. S. T. Badin, Tiieologian.
Bardstown Right Rev. Ign. Ciuibrat, Bisiiop of Balin, Coadjutor.

R'n'. 1. A. Reynolds, Tiicologian.

Riglit Rev. John England.
Cfharleston R'ght Rev. William Clancoy, Bishop of Orion, Coad-
jutor.

Rev. John Hughes, Theologian.
Vincennes Right Rev. S. (r. Brute, Bishop.

Rov. P. R. Kcnriek, Tiieologian.
New Orleans Right Rev. Ant. Blanc, Bishop.

Rov. Aug. Verot, Theologian.
l^ew York Rev. Felix Vurela, V. G., Procurator.

Rov. T. W. McSherry, Superior of the Jesuits of Mary-
land.

Rev. S. J. Vcrhoegen, S. J., Superior of the Jesuits of
Missouri.

Rev. L. R. Deluol, Second Promotor.

Rev. Edward Damphoux, Secretary.

Rev. C. J. White, Assistant Secretary.

Rev. Fr. Shaume, and Rev. II. Griffin, Masters of Cere-
monies.

Rev. John Randanne, and Rev. P. Fredet, Cantors.

Eight Rev. John Dubois, Bishop of New York. Se
Excusatum haberi rogavit.

Fourth Council of Baltimore (1840).
Fathers, Theologians, and Officers of the Council.

Baltimort

• Most Rev. S. Ecclcaton, Arclibishop.
Rev. L. R. Deluol, Rov. .' J, Chanche, and Rev. N.
Kerney, Theologians.

Tll6-

AITKNDIX.

545

tor.

!^oad-

ire-

Jiardstown Uiy:lit IJcv, 1'.. Fliiirot, Hishop.

Kov. S. CliiizcHc, S. J., Tlu;()lo(,'iun.
Charleston liicrlit Kev. J. ICii^rliiiul, IVisliop.

Kciv. .r. I'owor, ami licv. D. .1. Barry, Tlicologiuim.
St, Louis Kij,',it IJov. J. llosuti, Bisliop.

Kev. J. Lutz, Tl'.eoloxiiiii.
Boston lli^rht Kcv. IJ. J. Fciiwick, llir^Iiop.

liev. n. B. Coskcry, TlicoloLrian.

Mobile ]ii(,'lit Kov. M. Tortior, Bisliop.

Philudelphia ]vi<,'lit Kcv. F. F. Keiirifk, Adininistrutor.

Rov. M. O'Connor, Tlicolojrian.
Cincinnati Ritrlit Kov. J. B. I'urcell, Bishop.

Kiiv. J. McEiroy, S. J., Theolugiua.
New Orleans Kii,'ht Rev. A. Blanc, Bishop.

]?ev. J. Bouillier, C. M., Theologian.
Dubuque Kiglit Rev. M. Lorus, Bisliop.

Rev. S. Riiymond, Theologian.
Nashville Right Rev. R. V. AFiles, Bishop.

Rev. B. Buyer, Theologian.
Fincennes Right Rev. C. R. L. de la llailandierc, Bishop.

Rev. P. P. Lefe^'ere, Theologian.

Right Rev, 0. A. M. J. de Forbiu .Tanson, Bishop of

Nancy (Frnnce).
Rev. \ . Badin, Theolo^■ \.

V.Q.V, C. p. Montgomery, Pr^ f^uratc of the Dominicans.
Rev. J. Frost, Superior of the ivo'! iptorists.
Rev. p. Mori^'-tj , Superior oft, c J uTmita of St. Augaa-

tine.

Rev. J. B. L. E. Damphoux, and Rev. C. S. White, Soo--

retaries.
Rov. F. Lliomme, and Rov. J. B. Donolan, Masters of

Cci ■monies.
Rev. J. B. Rundannc, onCi Rev. P. Fredet, Canton.

Fifth Council of BALTI^(f. .o^^).

Fathers, Theologians, and Office) s of the Council.

Baltimore Moat Rev. S. Eccloston, Archbishop.

Rev. a. Raymond, S. T. D., Rev. P. S. Schrciber, and
Rev. J. Foy, C. S. R., Theologians.
Boston Right Rev. B. J. Fenwick, Bishop.

II. B. Coskery, Theologian.
Mobile Right Rpv. M. Portier, Bishop.

T. Ilickey and C. Rainpon, Theologians.

W' «iA

5, ■ >

( ii

546 APPENDIX.

Philaiielplda Ri<rlit Kev. F. P, Konrlolt, Bishop.

IJcv. Tl). llnvden, Tlu'olojriiia.
Olncinruiti Kisrlit Hev. J. B. I'lirooll, BUliop.

Hev. T. Ileniii, Tlieolouriun.
jUi' i'"'' Uiu'lit Hi'v. fi. .1. (Jliiihr.it, CoiKljntor.

Kov. J. B. RiiiKlmiio, Tliool(),'ian.
I\ew Orleans lliarlit ilcv. A. Bluiio, Bi;*liop.

Kcv. A. Verot, Tlicoln^iun.
Duhuquf Ri'^'ht H<n'. M. Lonis, Bishop.

Kov. S. Mazzuc'liolli, 0. P., Theologian.
New York V ' "ov. J. IIii-'lics, Bishop.

ji.ev. A. PcMuo, C. M., Tlicolo^inn.
JVashville Hifcht Rev. R. P. Miles, Bisliop.

Kev. K. H. Pozzo, O. P., Theologian.
Vincennea Kisjlit Rev. dc In Iliiiliindi^re, Bishop.

Rev. T. S. Donajrhoe, Tiieolozinn.
Natchez Rigiit Rev. J. J. Clmnche, Bisliop.

Kcv. J. Ltmcastor, Tlieolo.'iuii.
Richmond Riglit Rev. R. C. Whelan, Bishop.

Rev. S. Ryder, S. J., Thooloirian.
Detroit Rii^bt Rev. P. P. Lefevere, Administrator.

Kev. (■. Hammer, Theolof^ian.
St. Louis RiKlit Rev. 1*. R. Keiirick, Coadjutor.

Rev. S. B. Toriiatore, C, M., Theologian.
2'«xa8 Rij,'ht Rev. J. M. Odin, Vi. r-apostoUc.

Rev. J. B. Gildea, Theologian.
CharUitton Kev. R. S. Baker, V'ioar-general, Administrator.

Rev. P. Lynch, S. T. D., Theoloorian.

Rev. L. K. Deluol, S. T. D., Superior of St. Sulpice.

Rev. J, Timon, Superior of tlio Congregation of the

Mission.
Rev. J\ J. Verhoeoren, S. J., Provincial of Mis'souri.
Kev. P. Moriarty, Com.-general of the Hermits of St.

AugusJne.

Rev. J. B. Damphoux, and Rev. C. I. White, Secre-
taries.
Fov. F. Lhomme, Master of Ceremonies.
i<ev. T. Foley, and Kcv. O. Jenkins, Assistants.
Rev. W. Blenkinroy, and Kev. G. D. Parsons, Cantors.

Balti,imre.

^IXTH COCNCIL OF BALTIMORE (1846).

•J, T •iologians, and Oj/icers of the Council.

...Most Rev. Samuel Eccleston, Archbishop.

Kev. Gilb. Raymond, S. T. D., Kev. H. B. Coskery, and
Rev. C. 1. White, Theologians.

), Secre-

Cantors.

APrENDIX.

JUohih '. ■Ricrlif V.i'v. M. Porticr. P/isliop.

Hev. A. T. Klder, Tlieolov'ian.
I'hiUtdHphia IJiifbt Hi'v. F. 1*. Kciirick, lJir«Iinp.

Kcv. J. B. Toriiatorc, TlicolnLriuu.
Cincinnati Kii,'lit Hev. .1. 15. Pnriell, Hislioi).

Kev. K. T. CdlliiiH, Tlu-oloirinn.
Lomaville Riplit Kcv. G. J. Cliabrat, Coadjutor.

Rev. M. J. Spaldintr, S. T. I)., Theologian.
New Orleam Uijjlit Hcv. A. lilanc, Uisliop.

Kcv. A. Verot, TliooloL'ian,
Dubuque . . Hi-rlit IJev. M, l.oras, Hisliop.

Kev, M. Mc'Aloor, Tlicoloiriun.
Kew York Rijjrlit Kev. J. llii'.'lics, Hi^liop.

Kififlit Kov. J. McCloskcy, Coudjntor.

Rov. F. Varcla and Kcv. J. Mct'allVoy, Tlici
Kashiille Rijrlit Kcv. K. I'. MiliT, liisliop.

Kcv. C. J. Carter, Tlicolnurinn.
Vincennes Ki^jrlit Kov. do hi nailaiidiL-re, Bishop.

Kev. J. B. Kan(hinne, Tiicolo<rian.
dutches Kij^lit I!ev. J. J. (Jlianclio, Bi.'^Iiop.

Kov. .1. B. Saint Germain, Tiieolo;,'ian.
Richmond Kiu'lit Kov. K. V. VViielaii, Ui«iiop.

Kev. II. Tappcrt, C. SS. K., Tlieolov'ian.
Detroit Kiglit Kev. P. P. Lcfevere, AdniiiiiBtrutor.

Eev. C. C. Piwe, Tiieoloirian.
Ht. Louis Rijrlit Kev. P. K. Kenrick, Bishop.

Kev. J. .Meiolicr, Tiieolofjriaii.
Texas Kijjrlit Rev. J. M. Odin, Vicar-apostollo.

Rev. J. Dohin, Theolojiian.
Pittsburg Rijrlit Kev. M. O'Connor, Bishop.

Kev. T. Hoyden, Thcolo<rian.
Little Rock Rigiit Rov. A. F>yrne, Bishop.

Rev. J. Corry, Theologian.
Chicago ''ight Rev. W. Quarter, Bishop.

Rev, O. L. Jenkins, Theologian.
Hartford Right Rev. W. Tyler, Bishop.

Kev. E. McColguii. Theologian.
Charleston Right Rev. I. A. l:;c\ joKls, Bishop.

Rev. J. Barry, Tlicologian.
Milwaulcie Right Kev. J. llenni, Bishop.

Kev. T. Iliekey, Theoloiriaii.
Bostiin Right Rev. J.B. Fitzputrick, Coadjutor.

Rev. J. \'. Quiblier, Theologian.

B47

logians.

jry, and

Rev. R. L. Doliiol, Rector of St. Mary's Seminary.
Kev. .1. Tiiiiou, Superior of the Congregation of tho
Misciiou.

Iv '

n \

548 APl'LNDIA

Kcv. I*, r/acktrt, Sii|)orlor of tlic Congrbgntion of th«

Most Holy Koilci'imT.
Uov. (}. A. WilHoii, I'rov'l of tlio Oidor of St. Dominic.
Kev. 1'. J. Voriiopi^C'ii, S. J., I'roviuuiiil of tiio Jo«uit8

for Miirylimil.
Kcv. J. (). VimdovcUlc, W. J., Vice-provincial of the

JcHuilrt of Mi.isouri.

Kcv. J.H. Duni|>lioiixuiiil Rev, F. Lliommo, Secretaries,
Kcv. F. Llioiiinio, Master of Ceronionica.
Rov. W. D. rar»on», Cantor.

8KTE>iTH Council ok Ualtimore (1849).
FlUheri, Theolor/ians, and OJiccrs of the Council.

BaUit}w:'€ Most Rev. S. Eeclenton, Arelibinliop.

Kov. S. Kiiyinond, Kev. C. I. White, and Rev. H. B.
Coskery, Tlieolofrians.
.S7. Louis Most Kov. 1*. K. Kenriek, Arolibisliop.

Kcv. S. A. Paris und Kcv. Tli. Foley, Theologians.
Mobile Rif,'lit Kcv. M. Portier, Bishop.

Kev. J. M. Portier, Tlicolojjian.
PhiladeljMa Kiglit Kov. S. P. Kcnrick, Bisiiop.

Kev. T. Amut, C. M., Thooiojjian.
Cincitmati Kiglit Kev. J. B. Piircell, Bishop.

Kcv. J. F. Wood and Kcv. W. Untertlieiner, 0. P. M.,
Tlicologians.
Mw Orleans Right Kev. A. Blanc, Bialiop.

Kev. A. Rouquette and Kev. J. McCaffrey, Theologians
Dubuque Right Rev. ^I. Loras, Bisiiop.

Rev. A. Pclaniourgucs, Theologian.
Mw Torh Right Rev. J. Hughes, Bisliop.

Rev. J. Loughlinand Rov. .J. Raffcincr, Theologians.
Nashville Riglit Rov. R. P. Miles, Bishop.

Rov. J. P. Uonelan, Theologian.
Natchez Riglit Rev. J. J. Clianclie, Bishop.

Rev. J. Ilickey, Theologian.
liichmond Right Rev. R. V. AVhelan, Bishop.

Rev, T. O'Brien, Theologian.
Detroit Right Rev. I*. P. Lefevere, AdminiBtrator.

Rev, P, Kindekens, Theologian.
Galveston Right Rev. J. M, Otiin, Bishop,

Rev. A. Verot, Theologian,
Fittsburg Right Kev. M. O'Connor, Bishop.

Rev. J. O'Connor, Theologian.

APPKNDIX.

549

Albany Right Rev. J. McCIoskoy, Bishop.

Ufv. .F. J. (;()iir<>y, Tlieoldj^iiin.
Hartford Right Kuv. W. Tv'^'', Hifthop.

Ruv. J. Fitton, Theologian.
CharUaton, Right Rov. I. A. Rfjnol.Is, Kishop.

Rev. il. Ryder, S. .1., Theologian.
Milwaukie Right Rev. .1. .M. Heiini, Bi«hop.

Rov. M. lleiss, Theologian.
Jioston Rigiit Kev, .1. U. Fitzpatriek, Bishop.

Rev. T. Connolly, Theologian.
CUvdand Right Rev. A. Rappo, Bishop.

Rev. T. B. Randanne, Thcologinn.
Buffalo Right Rov. .J. Tinion, Bishop.

Rev. B. O'Reilly, Theologian.
Louisville Right Rev. M. .1. Spalding, Condjutor.

Rev. \V. Klder, Tiieologiun.
Vinctnnes Right Rev. M. de St. Palais, Bishop.

Rov. J. Corbo, Theologian.
Chicago Right Rov. J. O. Vandeveldo, Bishop.

Rov. 0. C. I'isc, Theologian.

Tho Right Rov. A. Byrno, Bishop of Littlo Rock, was not pres-
ent nt tho Council, but his Theologian, Rov. W. Starrs, was.

Rev. L. R. Deluol, Rector of St. Mary's Seminary.
Rev. M. Mailer, Superior of the Congregation of the

Mission.
Eev. B. Winimer, Superior of the Ordc ' Benedict.
Rev. J, S. Alemany, Provincial of fh"! n,,:, of St.

Dominic.
Kev. J. P. O'Dwycr, Comm. GencrrI c ii o I'' i Ha of

St. Augustine.
Rev. J. Brocard, Provincial oi le .-nii. "f M^ •' wi.
Rev. J. A. Elet, Vic. Prov. of tho Jtuil- ul" Mi- ouri.
Rev. C. Boulanger, Superior of the Jesuii -./York.

Rev. B. Haf kenscheid. Provincial of the C^ .igregatioti

of the Holy Redeemer.

Rev. J. B. Damphoux and Rov. F. Lhomme, Secretaries.
Eev. F. Lhonnne and Rev. F. E. Boyle, Masters of

Ceremonies.
Eev. L. Gillet, 0. SS. R., and Rev. W. D. Parsons,

Ctttitort^.

fjj

;i':;'

'ill

II I

fjM

■?■ i!

550

APPENDIX.

Plenary Council of Baltimore (1852).
Fathers, Theologians, and Officers of the Council.

Jialti7nore Most Rev. F. P. Kenrick, Arclibi^liop, Delegate of the

Holy See.

Kcv. II. B. Coskery, V. G., Rev. C. I. AVhite, S. T. D.,
anrl Rev. Aup. Verol, S. S. S., Theologians.
Oregon Most Rev. F. N. Blanchet, ArchblsliDp.

Rev. J. Iliokey and Rev. A. J. Elder, Theologians.
St. Louis Most Rev. P. R. Kt-nriek, Archbishop.

Rev. A. ()"Regan and Rev G. O. Uertiieb, Theologians.
New Orleans Most Rev. A. Plane, Arclibisliop.

Rev, N. i'erchi' and Rev. J. Dulan Theologians.
New York Most Rev. J. Hughes, Arehbisho|).

Rev. J. Lontrhliii, V. G., and Rev. J. R. Bailey, Theol.
Cincinnati Must Rev. J. B. Piircell, Arci/bishop

Rev. .1. Ferneding, V. G., and Rev. J. M. Young, Theo.
Mobile Right Rev, M. Portier, Bi>hop.

Rev. .J. J. Million, Theologian.
Dubuque Right Rev. M. Loras, Bishop.

Very Kev. A. Pelamourgiies, V. G., Theologian.
Nashville Right llev. R. P. Miles, Bishop.

Rev. L. Ubeniicyer and Rev. J. B. Byrne, Theologians.
Natciuz Right Rev. J. J. (Jhaiiche, Bishop.

Rev. J. Fitton, Theologian.
Wheeling Right Rev. R. V. Whelan, Bishop.

Rev. H. !'. Gallagher, Theologian.
Detroit Right Rev. P. P. I.ef'evere, Administrator.

Very Rev. P. Kinderkeiis, V, G., Theologian.
Galveston Right Rev, J. M. Odin, Bishop.

Rev. E. Quigley, Theologian.
Pittsburg Right Rev, M. O'Connor, Bisliop,

Rev. E. F. Garland and Rev. A. T. Peyton, Theologians.
little Hock Right Rev. A. Byrne, Bishop.

Rov. P. Belian, Theologian.
Albany Right Rev. J. McCloskey, Bishop.

Very Rev. J. J. Conroy, V. G., Theologian.
Charleston Right Rev. 1. A. Reynolds, Bishop.

Rev. J. M. Forbes and Rev. 8. Malone, Theologians.
Boston Right Rev. J. B. Fitzpatrick, Bishop.

Rev. D. Hearne, Theologian.
Cleveland Right Rev. A. Rappe, Bishop.

Very Rev. A. T. Caron, V. w.. Theologian.
Buffalo Riglit Rev. J. Tiinon, Bishop.

Rev. W. O'Reilly, Theologian.
JjOuitvVle Right Rev. M. J. Spalding, Bishop,

Eev. C. J. Boeswald, Theologiaa.

ArPENDIX.

551

e of the

^. T. D.,

ans.
>logian8.

19.

>•, Theol.
ig, Tlieo.

n.
loloujians.

Ilogians.

nans.

Chicago Right liev. J. 0. Vandc-vcUle, Bishop.

Very Kev. W. J. Quarter, V. G., Theologian.
Ncsqxtaly Kight Kev. A. M. A. Bhinchet, Bishop.

Kev. R. Mullen, Tlicologian.
Monterey Kight Rev. J. S. Allemuiiy, Bishop.

Rev. T. Martin, 0. P., Tiieologiau.
Hartford. , Riglit Rev. B. O'Reilly, Bishop.

Rev. J. McElroy, S. J., Theologian.
Savannah Right Rev. F. X. Gurtland, Bishop.

Rev. J. MeCatlrey, S. T. D., Tiieologian.
Bichmond Right Rev. J. Mc(4ill, Bishop.

Rev. L. de Gandarillus, Theologian.
New Mexico Right Rev. J. Lamy, Vioar-apostolic.

Rev. J. Truxillo, Tiieologian.
Indian Territory .. ..Right Rev. J. B. Miege, Vicar-apostolic.

Rev. F. Burlaiido, C M., Tiieologian.
Philadelphia Right Rev. J. N. Neuinan, Bishop.

Very Rev. E. J. bourin, V. G., Theologian.
Toronto {Canada IF.). Riglit Rev. A. de Charbonnel, Bishop.

Kiglit Rpv. M. Eutropius, Abbot of St. Mary's of La

Trappc.
Very Kev. P. E. Moriarty, S. T. D., Assist. General 0. S.

Aug., and Comm. General of the Order.
Very Kev. K. A. Wliite, S. T. M., Visitor-general of the

Order of St. Dominic.
Very Rev. B. Wimnier, Superior-general of the Order

of St. Benedict.
Very Rev. W. Unterthiner, Sup'r of the Freres Minora.
Very Rev. J. Ashwander, S. J., Provincial of Maryland.
Very Kev. \V. Murphy, S. J., Vic. Prov'l of M ssouri.
Very Kev. C. Boulanger, S. J., Superior of the Mission

of Canada and New York.
Very Kev. A. Jourdaut, S. J., Superior of the Mission

of New Orleans,
Very Rev. B. J. Hafkenscheid, Provincial of tho Con-
gregation of the Holy Redeemer.
Very Kev. M. Mailer, Superior of the Congregation of

the Mission, Director of tlie Sisters of Charity.
Very Rev. F. Lhomme, Society of St. Sulpice, Rector

of St. Mary's.

Kev. E. L. Damphoux, Notary.

Very Rev. P. L. Lynch and Rev. T. Foley, Secretaries.
Rev. F. Burlando, C. M., Master of Ceremonies.
Very Rev. L. de Goesbriand, V. G., and Rev. J. Dough-
erty, Cantors.

i" m

. S ; I

552

APPENDIX.

TIT.

CERTIFICATE OF THE MAKFvIAGE OF JEROME BONAPARTE
(as entered in the handwriting of risHOP Carroll).

Baltimore, December 2ith, 1S03.
With license, I this day joined iu holy mutriinony, uceording to the rites
of the holy Cutliolic Church, Jerome Bonaparte, brotlier of the First Consul
of France, ond Elizabeth Patterson, daughter of William Patterson, Esq., of
the city of Baltimore, and his wife. kf* Jon^f? Bishop of Baltimore.

IV.

LIST OF PRIESTS ORDAINED IN THE DIOCESES OF BALTIMORE,
PHILADELPHIA, NEW YORK, ALBANY, BUFFALO, BROOKLYN,
AND NEWARK.
Ordinations at St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, and Georgetown.

IC,

2(1

21!

2!)

.S:-i

8T
8-
89

-NAMK.

Stephen Theodore Badin

Demetrius A. Giillitziii

John Flovd

John T. M. E. P. DeMondeslr

William Mathews

Ignatius Bal<er Brooke

•lohn Monnereau

Michael Cuddy

Georgie M. de Perigny . . . .

William O'Brien

Francis Roloti;

John Spink, S. J,

Leonard Edelin, S. J

Enoch Fen wick, 8. J... .
Benkdiot Fknwick, S. >i. .

Michael Byrne

James N. Jou her*.

Adam Marsliall. S. J

John Carey, S. .T

•loseph Picol de Clou iere.. .

Josejih Uarent

James Redmond, S. J

Edward Damphoux

John Moynihaii

•John H i<'key

.lames Wiillace. S J

Charles Bowiuig, S. J

Uo;.'er Smith . .

Josejdi Gobert, S. J

Patrick O"''onnor

John Holland

John McElroy. S. J

Koirer Baxter, S. J

Nicholas Kenny

Frtircloiigli

Geori;e Slienfelder

Honore X Xaupi

1 J<)I1>J Ch.vncuk

iTiuioihy O'iirier

PLACE OF STUDY.

Orleans, France. .
St. Mary's Sem'y.

Chartres, Franco.
St. Omer's Sem'y.

Liege

Uioux, France

St. Mary's Sem'y.

Blois, 1' ranee

St. Mary's Sem'y .

GoorKetown.

St. Mary's Sem'y..

Georgetown,

France and Geo"t'n
St. Mary's

Georgetown

France &'St. Mary's

WIIKN

okdained.

Georgetown

St. Mary's . .
Georgetown
St. Mary's . .

Georgetown
St. Mary's..

Mount St. Mary's.
St. Mary's Sem'y.

May 25, 1793.
March 18, 1795,
Dec. 19.1795.
Sept. 30,1798.
March 29, 18(19.
March 21, 1801.
April 22, 1802.
Mav 14, 1803.
June 20, 180.3.
April 11. 1808.
June 11,1808.

Sept. 23, 1809.
Sept. 22. 1810.
Juno S, 1811.
Dec, ISn.
Aui,'., 1SI2.
Mav 19, 1812.
March 21.1813.
June 12, 1813.
Aui. 7. KS13.
Sept •.'4. 1^14.
Nov. 17, 1814.
June 18, 1815.
Aug. 2. 1SI5.
Aug. 27, 181.5.
Dec. l:'., 1815.
Nov. 30, 1816.
May 81, i917.

March 13, 1818

Anp. 1,5, 1813.
June 5. 1819.

BY wno.M.

Achli'p Carroll.

Bisliop Neale.

u
ii

Bishop Carroll.

Bishop Neale.
ti

Bishop Carroll.

Bishop Neale.

Bishop Carroll.
((

Bishop Neale.

Ri-hop Carroll
Bishop Neale.
Bishop Carroll
Bisl.opCheverc
Archb'p Neale.

Abp. MarechaL

ii:^

Neale.

Carroll,

Neale.

Carroll.

Neale.
Carroll.

Neale.

Carroll,

Neale.

Carroll

ICheveri"

Neale.

[arucbaU

APPENDIX.

653

N.V.MK.

IT.ACK OF KTUDV.

WHKN
OlfDAINK.D.

BY wnoM.

40
41
4-J
4.3
44
45
41!
47
4'^
49

r)0

o4
55

r>':,

5i»
(iO
61

St. Miiry's Soin'y. . i-Mnrch ib, 1^2i), Abj). Maroeli.'vl.
Georfr<'lo\vii ..,.!. July 2:{, 1S20. , "

JftTiios Cutniiii-k.n-

{xeiirce 1). Hoiriin

.)i>hnMiii-[itiy. S. .1

lli'iiry Vcrli('ri:oii, S, .1

Pi'tt-r .1. Tiniiucniiiiii^, .'. .1. , . '• "

.Mcxiiis ICl.lor St Mary"sSom"v..i.\ii<,'. 13, 1820.

Michafl WlR'hin " ...'...■

Stephen Dii liiiisHoii, S. .J Georiietowii I Auk. 7. 1S2I.

■• Dee. ■-',, 1S22.

i.M.ircli I'.Mvia

Miiv li.'J, 1S23.

\'iruil II. r.ai'ln'r. S .f. . .

AloysiiH Miidil. S .)

I'etLT Wiilsh. S. .1

John Smith, S. .T

I(;naths Ui;VN(ii.ii.s. . . .

Fercliniiiiii ('<)>kc'r

.Jiilin Oeiry

Fnincis .1. "Vniilior.siuli ..
Clru-les C. I'lM'

St. Marv's

iOct. 24, 1S23.
.Julyii2, 1S2I.

...| March 19,1825,

liriiatiiis Combs, S. .1 |Ge()rf.'etown I.March, 1*25.

Michael D.jiiiih. ily ; ' " "

Sami'ei. Koci.r.STON- iSt. Mary's 1 April 24, 1S2.'').

Matthew P. Deapl.' " Sept. 2:?, ISJO.

George Fenwiek, S. J ! :Oct. 2S, 1820.

62>Tatnes TLerner jSt. Mary's

♦).'! .\nihiiny Kenny

64:.T()lin I.arkiii

(15 I'eter Sebreibev

6fl Thomas Fini<ran, S. .1

07 James Van <le Velck', S. •).

68; James Neill, S. J

<)',)'.Johii Gildea

Tujjiihn Ciirtin

71 Franeis Jamisci;: jSt. Mary's ..

72lFrancif. StilliiiKer F^mmetsburg

7;J,.\le.\an(!cr llit.seiberiii'r I "

74' Ivlwurd Niu'ht |St. Mary's . . ,

75,(ieori,'e Flaiit ]

7f>i Henry Myers St. Mary's . . ,

T7!Kngene J." I'elissiri' i

Sept. 2-3. 1826.

Oct. G, lS2r>.
Aug. CO, 1S27.

Georgetown Sept. 2,5, 1?27.

it Marv's . .

St. Mil

7S:.f()lin lloskyns '

79 Thomas Liilv. S. .1 Gecrgctown

60 James Curley, S J i .".

81 IJcrtraml Plot

82 Henry Coskery

8.3 .Tohii Doiiehm

81 Michael (ralnlier

85 Michael lleas

86 Augustine Bally, S .1....

87,J.iincs Strain, s" J

8h! Patrick O.rry, S, J

S9|.\inbmse Dl.ermcver . . . .
•10 .?ohn H. MeCaffiv".

Nov. 25, 1827.
.March 2.-), 1829,
iJulv 14, 1829.
Se|it. .'), 1S29.
Fi'b. 2-i, 1830.
May 2,-1, 1830.
I Aug. 81, 1S30.
I Oct: 2. IS.'^O.
Sept. 3, 1831.
; April 17, 1831.
Auk. 30, 1832.
J>ine 1, HG3.

IGcorgetowu . .

Thomas McCatlr\- . . ,
HuKli Gritlin. .. ."....
David W. I'acon". . ,

91
92
93,

94 Kdwartl Colgnn

95 /lames Dolaii

96i Peter O'Flanagan, S J.

97 James Power, S. J

98 koger Dietz. S J

9^ Henrv Murphy

100, Patrick Courtney

St M:;ry's . . ,
Ftnmetsbnig

Georgetown

Sept. 1, 1833.
Sept. 20, 1S34.
July 24, 1830.
I • "
Mav 4, 1SS7.
Mav 6, 1837.
July 23, 1837.

I)e'. 8. 18.37.
.March li>. 183S.
Dec. I. 1838.
Dec. 13, IS8S.

Sept. 1.1889.
Dec 13. 1840.
■ April 6, 1840.

June 29, 1841.
Sept. 8, 1842.

Bishop Chcverus.
Jiisliop Dubourg.
Abp. Marechal.

Pp. V). Fenwiek.
Jas. Whitelield.
Abp. Marechal.

Pp. Sommnriva,

of Modeiia.
Abp. Marechal.

Bb. E, Fenwiek.
Abp. Whitetield.

Abp. Eccleston.

Bishop Rosati.
A ill). Eccleston.

654

APPENDIX.

i' 'f V '

>AME.

liciii'dici l)()ii('l;in .
liiMies Ward. S. J..

■lohii I'.lcx, S.J
W'illiatn C ark, S. J.

Chitr

t's Miiiicstrco

t. S. J.

Wi liiiin Loi;:in, S, J.,
Wiliiam iJlciikiiisDp.
Jolin Aiken, S.J. ...

Miles O'hbdMs. S, J..
Gi^o'ge Villiirer. S. J.
Micliai-l TiitlVr. S. J. .

ThoitiH'* O'Ni'il

Josi'ijli M sniiro

Michrti'l Slattorj'

Oliver L Joiikiiis. . . .
Oliarli'.'! 15r('Miiii

no
no

121
122
12;5
124

101
10'_'
lii:i
104
1(1.')

lor.

lOS
100

no
111

112
118
114

11. ')

116

]17'\V;liiaiii ParsDns

llf Jotin Karlv, S. J

.\iif.'iisliiif"Mi.'Muik'li, S. J..

I)aiii(»l Lynnli. S. J

.\n^'ti.«tiii(> Kciinoily. S J...

Tiiomas ,M Jenkins, S J...

Peter IJIenkinsop, S. J

Caiiiilliis Vieiiia'iza, S. J. . .

12.iiTli().n;H U. Foley

126jFraneis X. Kinc

127|Patriok Dalton.

123 Joseph Fiiiotti. S. J

129 James Clarke, S. J

ISUiltdtitTt J. Lnwrenee

i:il Cliarle< Kini.'. S J

132. John McGnitran, S J

VMi Aiithonv Ciariipi. S. .1..
134

1.3.^

13('

137

13S

139

140

141

143

144

145

14)

'LACE OF STrnv.

(leoitrelowii

WIIKN
OKDAINK.D.

l^cc. 17, 1^4.'
July 4, 1S13.

Sept. 3, 1S43.
July 21, 1844.

St. Mary's Sem'y .

Georgetown

St. Mary's Sein'y.

Georgetown

lAug. 10, lSt4.
Sept. 1, 1844.

Dec. 21,1844.

July G, 1S45.

Jul vis, 1S46.
July 26, 1S46.

Ang 17. IR4f..
April 11, 1847.
June IS, IS 7.
Aug. 21, 1847.

July 12, 1848.
July 23, 1843.

Fribourg . . .
Georstetown
St. Mary's . .

Georgetown

Angelo Paiesre. S. <I

Livins Vigilante, 8 J

Basil Paoei.iriiii. S. J

Peter ile .Meuienioester, S. J.

Fr '.neis Laeliat. S. J

Hijipolyte (le Xeckere, S. J...

Fil ward Caton

Peter LeuMghun

John Gillespie, S. J

William I.aiiiliert

John Larkin

Kdwanl J. O'lJrien

i John S^attery. S. J jGeorgetown

147 Bernard Wiget, S. J Switzerland,

14S|Bnrchard Villiger, 8. J I

149|John Voors. S J Georgetown

150:Bernard Masuire, 8. J...,

151 Alphonsns Charlier, S. J,

152 Jolm Nally

153|Fr8ncis K. Boyle j

]51{Patrick Duddv, S J iGeorgetown

155, Henry Hohan." S. J

156, Peter Folehl, S.J "

157 James Tracy |

158 Samuel Lilly. S.J

159 Patrick Creiijhton, S. J.
leoi.Miehael Haring, S J.

St. Mary'.s

Georgetown

161 John J. Dougherty St Mary's

162,Joai«8 Walters i '■

, iFeh. 2, 1849.

Aug. 11, 1S4').
, ISept. 1. IS49.

!'Sept. 22. 1849.
.Oct 4, 1S49.

'June 2, 18.io.
Aug. 11, 1S60.

i •'

Jan. 12, IS.'il.
I Sept. 27, 1851.

I **

iNov. 21, lool.

June 12, 1852.

July 21, 18.-)0.
Aug. 27, 1842.

Sept. 94, 1«.'-3.
Stpt. 23, 1S53.

BY WHOM.

Abp. Leekston.

Bp. /itzpatrick.
Abp. E'cleston.

Bp. Fitzpatrlck.
Abp. Eeclesloii.

Bp, Fitz]iatrick,
Abp. Eecleston.

Bishop Garland.
Bi.shop McGlll.

Archb'p Kenrlck.

Bishop McQilL

it
(I

Archb'p Kenrick,

'«)

WHOM.

Lli'dtston.

•Mtzpatrick.
E' cluston.

APPENDIX.

Ordixations in the Diocf.se ok Wiieklinq.

655

KAME3.

WIIKUE EDUCATED.

wiiry

OKDAINKD.

BY WHOM.

Rev, Raitliolomew Stack.'

Rev. Di'Miiis Brcnium. . . . 1

Doc. 30, 18-19.
Doc. 2S, IS50.

Bishop AVhelan.

u
n

Rev. John T. Hnizill Seinin;try, AViid'lins

Rev. SU'pheii Ihiljcr St. Mary's Seiuin'ry, IJult.

Hcv. H. F. Pmko |

Rev. Jiiiiics Ciiniiiiighain. " "

Rev. ,I(,hn Wnlt.-rs " "

Rev. Jo.-eph Ileideiicaiiii) Seminary, "Wheeling

Rev. Henry Miilune i '* "

.liiMP 15. 1851.
.March 2S. 1852.
Dec. 21, 1s51.
Aug. ]«, 1853.

May, 1850.

Ordinations in Philadelphia from 1820 to 1832.

Most Rev. John HuKhes, now Archbishop of New York.
Right. Kev. F. X. Garllarul, late IJishop ut>nvaniiah.
Riglit Rev. G. A. Carrell, now Bishop of Cuvinglon.

Rev. B. Keonnn.
" P. RafTcrtv.
" Mr. Mean!
" Micliael Curran.

Rev. Th. Ecnn.
" Ch J. Oarter.
" Th. llavdcn.
" Mr. Uwiii.

Rev. J. O'Reilly.
'• J. t?tillini.'t r.
" E. J. Soiirin.

Out ok the Skminauy of St. Charles Borro.meo from 1S32 to 1858.

it/patrlek.
Ecclesion.

"itzi)atrick,
I Ecclesion.

Ip (HarlRnd.
Ip McGlll.
I I.

k'p Kenrlck.

McQIlL
it

Ip Kenrick,

Rev, Henry F, Fitz>imn-.ons

" Micliael Harkcr,

" I'arrick Rcil!v.

" Peter Miihcr."

" Daniel V. Devitt.

" J.itnes Miilriiiiy,

■' Micl:;iel Gal ai}lier,

'■ E.luard McGiTiiii.s,

' Francis •', Dean,

'• James MilUr.

" Daniel .Mct'oiien.

" Chri^tl)■r \V. Loughran.

" I'atricl; Xmreiit.

" Peter Sti-inliacker.

" Pairick Preniicrsrast,

" JIaltliew W. Gih.son,

'■ Patrick Shi-rid in,

" Nicliiilas Caniwcll.

'■ IIiii.'h Lane,

" Iliigli Fit/siinmons.

" I'hihp OFarrell,

" Jolin Mrtckin.

" Doinin ck Forrestall.

" Robert Kleineidain.

" John Walsh.

" James Power.

" John lierbiirier,

" Michael Malone,

" Eicbard O'Connor,

Rev Michael Martin,

" Jereiniali ,\liorn.

" James Oiillen.

•' Jiiines McGinnis.

'• Thiiinas lU-ai'don.

" Janii's () Kai.e.

'• Pairiik Flan'-'an.

" James (VKe tfe,

" SylvfSfer Ea'.'le.

" John LooiTliran.

" llui-'h McMahon.

" Artiiur Haviland.

" Michael Wertzfleld.

'• John 0"Shani:liiiessy.

" MaMhcw McGi'ain,"

" John Davis.

" MoM's \V hi! ty.

" .Maltlicw ('(djl)in,

" Peter (,'arlion.

" Philip Gohifh.

" Edward .Mnrrav.

" Edward Q. S. Waldron,

" Phtri, k O Hrien.

" Henry Finniiran

" Michael L. Scanlan.

" John .Mctiovern.

» John Kelly.

" John Power.

" Francis X. George.

Rev. Michael Plielan,

" John C^dnn

" "\Vm M.Laiishlin.

" John l-"laniiraii.

" Ji'lni Prendergast.

" \Vi;i. Kean.

'• Daniel Slieridan.

" Patrick Noonan.

" Jniin Power.

" Francis ,1. Walter,

" Rndo'.f Knn-..ir.

" Waiter Power.

" Joliii McCo-ker.

'• Patrhk Fit.'.Mioiris.

" Patrick Me.Vi-dle.

'■ Denii'-- O'll.trra.

" James McGinn.

" Richanl Kinnchan.

" Maar;. • Walsh

" ]Cdnn)i d Fii/morrls.

" 'riionia> Lyndon.

" Charle^ .\!cEnroy.

'• James BaiTi tt.

" John Si'anlan.

'• John Me.^nany.

" 'I'hcunas Keains.

" David Whrbin.

" Patrick M<'S\viggan.

" Nicholas Wulsh."

y. U

■1 )■'■• I

,A:

656

AriT-NDIX.

OUDINATIOXS IN' TIIK J)Hi('i;SK OK XkW YoUK.

NAMHB.

Rov.
L'ev.
F.cv.

IJov.

llfV

liov.
lU'v.
litv.

]:.v.

K.-v.

lU'V.

liev.

Rpv.

Kev.
Itev.
Kov.
lltv.
E.v.
1U'\:
liov.
]'av.

]:ov.

Mil hiifl <)'(i<iriiian .

liicliiird Mn'iiPr

Piitiick Kolly

Oldilfs liroiiiian . . .
•lolin SliniiitliHti .. . .

• IllIlM (.'omMV

Liiki' Heiry

.John Wiil^li

•IiiSfph A Srliiu'lli'r.
Orrirorv I?. I'anlow.
Williiiiii (jiiaricr. . . .
Uenianl O'Keilly.. .

.Tames Tonvooron . .

I'dtrick Mdiitii

"WalttT ,1. Quarter ..

.Tdhn Kolly

.Iiilm M'Cioskoy

William Stairs

I'Mtfitk Ui-adk'v....

Ji)iin M'Niiity"

.laiiK s DoiilitTty . .
I'airick Oost.'llc). . .
.Iiiliii N. Neiimaiui .
David Bacon

■W'lIEKK KDL'CATEI).

KUkcliiiy (Joirjxe, Ireland.

tl *i ti

Mount St. Mary's College.

?oiiiinarv at ]\rontrcal.

WHEN
OUDAI.NKI).

St. Mary's Coll.. V>h1 ini'e
.Mount St. Mary's Collcs;e.
St. Mary's v ul)., Baltiiu'e,

.\.D. iS15.
A. ]). MM.
A.D ivJl.
A. 1). \-i-2.

A. 1). IS'.',-,.
-Ian. 1. l&'.'T.
Septcm., IS'27.
iDee. 'J 4, IS'.'T.
'Sept. K IS'.",).
Soi.t. 1!), IS-JO.
'Oct. ir>, 1S:J1.

Pnipni^randn. Rome

Mount St. .NIary's Collei/e.
Cliamhiy and Mount "?t.

Mary's Colletie

Mount St. Mary's College.

St. Mary's Coll., IJaltiin'e.

.Tiine11,1S.32.
Nov. 1), ISa'i.

BY WHOM.

Uibliop Connolly.

Bishop Dubois.

Piisirp Isenrick ot

l'iiiladel|diia.
Bisln>i) Dubois.

.Semin.iry at Montreal..
|Cliuuibly

Edward O'Xiell . . .

F. Coyie

.lohn Loiiudilin

Miles Maxwell . , . .

.]. Mackay

B. L. LaiMza

A. Manahan. D.D..
Cluis. D. MMullen.
'1 lieodore Noethen
Carberry .J. Byrne.
John Iliirley

jSeiiiinary at Montreal and

St. Mary's Coll., Balti'e.

'Mount St. Marv's College.

lApril 28, 1S38.
Se|.t. 14, lS:i3.
.Ian. 12. ls:!4.
Sept. 12, 1S34.
Dee. S, lS:i4.
May 2(1, IHSCk
•Inly 14, I.Sy.5.
March 2.5.1836.
■lunc 25, 1S36.

Dec. 13, 1 S3?.
Oct. IS, 1S40.

iLafarceville & Fordhani.|.Ian. 5. Is41.

IFordham '

ll^afar^jeville i<c Fordham. | "

! Propasanth, Rome Aug. 2',>. 1841.

Laliirgeville Dee. 1>^. 1H41.

Blfliop Hughes,

Card'al Franzoni,
Bishop Hughes.

For.lhatn |

Mount St. Marv's College.

Rev
Rev

.John .1. Conroy

, Lawrence Carroll. .,

Rev.
Rev.
Rev.
Rev.
Rev.
Rev.

Rev
Rev

Rev
Rev.
Kev

Rich.ird Kein

William llogan ...
Jan>es Keveiiy . . . .
.Anthony Farley. . .
Francis Donahue. .
Isaac P. Howell . . .

Michael M'Donnell
..I. R. Bayley

June 4.1 '^12. St.
^^ary's Cliap-
I el, Fordhara.

■Jan.20.1SI.3,St.
i Mary's Clia])-
el. Ford ham.
Jan. 2!), 184.3.

William M'Clellan.
, Michat! Curran, Jr
Miclmel Riurdaii . .

' Lafarseville and Fordhani i
I -- '• I

jSem. of St. Charles Boro-
I meo, Phil., & Fordhaui.
Seminary at Fordhaiii . ..
St. Sulpice Paris. & Sem-

I iiuiry at F<irdham

'Seuiiuiiry at Fordhani —

March 2, 18-14.

April 14, 1844.

•VVJIOM,

J) Connolly.

p Dubois.

p Ki'nrirk ot
ilaiU'Iphia.
ip Dubois.

:)p Hughes.

Franzonl.
Hughes.

APPENDIX.

557

NAMES.

WIIBRE EDUCATED.

Uev. .I(ihn HrtcUott

Ruv Joliu SlnTidiin

lit'V. 'rhdiiiHS M Hvoy ,,
Kev. William () It.illy..,
lii'v. Sylvester Miiloiie...
Uev, Matiliew lIlL,'j;iiis, .»
liev. (leoii^e M\ losiiey.,
Uev. PatrJL'li Kuuiiy, . . . ,

Seminary at I'ordham

Rev. F. P. MTarland . .
I'ev. Valentine Burgos.

Rev.
Rev.
Rov.
Rev.
D.
Itev.
Rev.
Rev.
Rov.
Rev.

Patriek M'Kenna. ..
John M'Menomy. ..

Patriek Murphy

.J. W. CiimiiiinL's,
D

.lames llourigan . .

M. Forranl

Euirene Matruire. . .

Tlioinas Daly

John Ciiroe

iPropaganila, Rome, and

I Korilham

[Mount St. Mary"s College,

anil Fonlliam

St. Siilpiee and Seminary

at Fordhum

Seminary at Fordham . ..

Propaganda. Rome

Sendnary at Fordham.. . .
Scholastic S. .1

Seuunary at Fordliam.. ..

Rev. Dennis ^Vheeler.

Rev. Angustu.s Regnier ,,
Rev. Ciiarlos Sheaiisky .,
Rev. .Vngustus Kohler..,
Rev. James O'Sullivan. .
Rev. Bernard J. M'tjuaid
Rev. John M. Murphy . .,

Rev. Thomas Ouellet

Rev. Francis M'Kcone. .

Rev. -lohn Boyle

Rev. Thomas Farrell . . .,
Rev. Edward Reilly ... .

Rev. John tjuinn

Rev. St(tplien Sheridan .
Rev. Thomas Quinn. . . .
Rev. J. Xavier Marechal
Rev. Claude Pernot ....
Rev. John B. Duffy ....
iU-y. John Ranfoi.-en . . .
lie V. Edward Briady ...
Rt>v. Thoinas T)oran. . . .

Rev. .John Carroll

Rev. Henry (yXeill

Rev. Patrick M'Cartliy .
Rev. Mieh.ael Madden...
Rev. Ilugli Sweeny ....
Rev. Victor 15eauilevin .
l£ev. Maiie Desj leques. .
Rev. 'I'heoilore Thiry . . .
Rev. .I(diii Comerlord. . .
Rev. .John M. Forbes . . .
Rev. Thomas S. Pre.ston

Rev. .lohn Re-'an

Rev. Kuffone C.issidy . . .
Rev. Thomas M'Laughlin.

Mount St Mary's, and St.

Joseph's Seminary

Mount St. Mary'o, and St.

Josei)h's Seminary

Schola>tie S. J

St. Joseph's Seminary.

Schcdastic S. .T

St. Joseph's Seminary.. . .

Mount St. Mary's College
St. Jo.seph's Seminary. . . .

Scholastic S. -T

Redetnplori^r

.St. .Joseph's Seminary.
Seminary of .Montreal.
St. Joseph's Seuunary.

. :8chola.stic S. J.

WIIKN
OKDAI.VKD.

Ai.rll 14, ISW.
Aug. If), lii44.

May 1?, 1S45.

Oct. 21,lStl).

.T.an. .3, 184T.
Feb. 7, IblT.

May 30, 1S47.

Aug. -S'l, 1^47.
Jan. Ill, 134i.

May 3, 1S4S.

Se[it. 23, li4?.
■June 14, lS4t»,

Oct. 3, 1S49.

Nov. 1,1 s40.
Dec. lii. Is41t.

May25, lS.-)0.

UY WllO.Vf.

Bishop Ilunhes.
Bis'p M'Clo.-.key.

Bishop Hughes.

Monsig. Brnnelii.
Bis'p M'ClosUey.

Bishop Hughes.

Bis'p M'Closkey.
Bisliop Hughes.

Bi>'p M'Closkey.
Bithup Hughes.

St. Joseph's Seminary Xov. 16, 1S50. Bis'p M'Closkey.

Aug. 1, 1S51. ; Archb'p Uughea.

Kev. Daniel Mugan. '. Mount St. Mary's College.

i !i

V'l

i^M

: H

•J ■,
■

656

APPENDIX.

W 11 K.N

NAMB.

WIIK.RK EDUCATED.

OKl>Al.Nia>.

BY WHOM.

Hev. TlioiiiiiH Mulrilio. ..

M<)il:;t St. Mary's Colli'^to

Aii^r. VI. ISftl.

Arcbb*f> llugltefiL

liov. iJaiiit's Cdvlf

St. Jo-Ni'iili's Si'iiiiiiary. . . .

March IH, 18M.

Kiv. 'lilii.-' .Idsliii

" " ...

Kcv. C'tinifliuH Dcluliiuily

ti ii

llov i)iiiiii> \\\-^'cr

Scli()la,slic S. J

\W\\ Arlliiir .1. Dniinolly.

St. .losfpirs St'iiiinary. . . .

Oct. 6, 1S63.

Iti'v. A milt! w Holiiiii ....

.Mount St. Mary's C'oili'ge.

Kov. Williim MCldskoy.

it it t.

licv. I'MtV Is OWoill

Maynodth Col litre

Ui'V. I'litiitk Ki;nil

St. Joseph's Suininary. . . .

Jan. 29, 1S53.

i;<'V. IJii'imiil I'arroll ....

.t I.

IJfv. I'litriik M (iovi-rn..

ti it

ili'N. 'I'liniim.^ MuDiii'y . . .

i. 11

Ut'V. Willhiiii KMTott . ..

" "•

lli-v . liciij. .Mhtiiv

" ....

Oct. 16, 1S53.

Archbij^'pBedini,

JIi'v. Man in Uowlin:?

11 u

»•

lii'V. Daii.cl Diiniiii',' . . . •

.. 4.

l!(>v. William K»'e::aii, ..

41 (.

«i

lIi'V. Cliiis, I'icaliTii.S. .1..

]U'\' Josc'iili ( 'ai'i'ddil S fl

liov. W'Wv Ti^siit, Ji .1.. . .

i:>v. IVt, 1'. Uilii'imuyer,

^;. .).

.Jan. 21, 1S54.

Bishoji Loughlin,

llfv. I'lti'i- MX iiinm

St. Josopli's Sotiiinarv

\'-v\. lii'ii.i. ( 1 CiilliiLrlmii . . .

....

llov. .JaiMis IJri'iiiiiiM ....

U il

lu'\ . I'atlick Mall(ilif\ . . .

1. ..

1I<'V. Kijiiicis ,1. liiililaril". .

U il

Alls, 17, 1S54.

Archb'p Hughes.

Krv, .Joliii (.'aiiiplii'il

tl i.

Kev. l''iaiii'i.s M'Ni'arney .

" "

lu'v. Kiiwdul Lviicli

" " ....

Kcv. .laiiics KcMlv

" " . .

((

Jivv. C'(inicliii> t'iiiiiiiiii;. .

.. .1

Kov. I'hiliii M'.MalKiii....

il 41

lav. iliijjii ISari'v

•'

Dec. 2;?, 1854.

Bishop Louchlin.

Ki'v. Kdw.iid M'Giiiii

14 U

Ki'V. .loliii Murray

44 14

Ki'V. .Innics IJiivci'

44 (4

Aug. n, 1S55.

Archb'p Hughes,

lUv. ,I,,lui M Kvuv

44 I.

»»

lU'v. riiilip o'Dimoliui'. .

(4 4i

lii-v. Jiihii M DeriiKilt . ..

44 .4

liov. .Jdlin MaixiT ■'

44 44

lu'v. .1. A. Cuiiniii^'liain,

S. J

((

it
ii
U

\\-\. il.n. .M. Iliuldii S. .1.

Ki'V. I'liili|> ll.('li()iiiii,S.J.

Kov. .loliii M. .Viibicr, S J.

OlU). NATIONS !N' THE DiOrKSE OK BuOOKLYN.

NAMK.

WIIKN ORDAINED.

BY WHOM.

Ki'V. .Tolin Dowlinc

Aiiiru.st 1.3, 1S54

Septoniber 22. 1 ^54

A u<;iist l.'i, lSr)5

.Ml',- 1, 1S.-)6

I'lisliop Louglilin.

Ki'V. Ki linrd I>aNtei', S. .1

Krv. Tli.itnas \V McCloorv

Kfv l-)a:iiil Wh.'laii ".

Kcv. Al"' r-iiis l-jid' r-

41
41
41

'. f

i WHOM.

t)'{) II Uglier

bisp Bedlni.

>li Longhlin.

b"p Hu

ghcs.

p Longhlin.

"p Iluglios.

WHOM.

LouL'lilin.

APPENDIX.

Ol'.DI.V.ATIONS IN TIIK DlOCEsiK OF AlDANY.

559

N AMI'S.

Wl'K'U; KUUCATRD.

DATE OK OKDINA-
! TION.

BY wno.«.

ilcv. Jdliii U. lIcitiKt Si. .Tolin"". F I'llli.im

Ri'v. Mli'liMi'l Vu\\,\- Irish CollcKO, I'lirls

IIi'v. Williiiiii McCullion

Itcv. llfiiry iltiflvins

Kfv. Kd^'iii- r. \\ iu'iiHiiiH .. St. Siili)lci-, I5Hltinioiv,M(l.

Kcv. .M i( liiii'l lliickia

I.'ov. l*Htri<'k Kciiiin Mnyiiootli, Ireland

Hev. Mmiiict' I.'ouin' Irish Collige, Paris

Hi'V. Miiiirlcc .:..«oli. .. " ....

Hi'V. WillJHin CojU'lilaii " ....

I'cv. Michiifl C'.;Mko

Ki'V. l!,irtlii)loiii.MfL(i;:liliii .Mt. St. Mury'.i, litniiU't.sb.

liiv. Tliiimas '"iilliiti Hi. John's, FordhKlii

llev. Kii ■ no ircill " . . . .

Kev. t'<„/ii'liiis {■•iti'ii;itrii'l<. "

llfv. James Sniilli Montrettl

I.'ev Jdsepli Meyo

Ilev. I.<pui> DfSKiclies. . ... Montreal

I'-v. Jolin Liidden 6t. .John's. ForUham

P'-v. riiarles Jir.idy

Julv 19, 1S4T.
November, 184S.

Janunry 13. IS-OO.
May :i, ISDO.

August XT), 1S50.
May ;?, ISJI).

'Ancust 15, 1S60.

IS.')].

Kastertido, 18.')2.
IViitucost, ls5iJ.

Suiiiiiier 1333.

jlsv.i.

Jimuarv '.!l. 1S.")4,

I Uccfii liter 0,1834

15p. McCioskey.

Pev.
Pev.
itev.
Kev.
Uev.
Hev.
Pev.
Pev.
Pev.
Eev.
Pev.
Uev.
Pev.
Pev.
Pev.
Itev.
Pev.
Pev.
Uev.
Kev.
lU'V.
l{ev.
Eev.
Kev.
Eev
Eev.
Pev.
Pev.
Kev.

OkOINAIIONS IX TllJi DlOClCSK OF BvKKALO.

Edmund O'Connor '. Ordained April 22, 1S4S.

Jidin Donnelly

Joliii Fii 'Oiitriel:

Mi. Imel •'I'rlen

Joseph r.ii^io

Teter ISede

Charles 'I'iernry

Mieliael Walsl'

M. Seller' r.

Tlioniiis 1^:' iiilngliuoi

Joseph Ia 1 "ii

Ricliard 'lariui.;i

FriiiKis ' . Lefiter

Franeis S. Urich

Daniel Dolaii

Peter C'o'gii:!

Winiiiiii Siepliens

Daniel .M .(Hv

Franeis l\.->,utli.'iner. . ,

Franeis O. I'arrell

Nicholas lii.rns

J. K.trly

Bernard McCo(d

Thouias Unnly

Martin Ka\ '; 'iili

Mi.-liael I'lireell

William Gleeson

Richard Storey

N. Ueituar

1S4S.

18 8.

1849.

1340.
March 30, 1S49.
Jniio 17, 1849,
June 17. 1S49.

1S49.
September 1.'), 1S50.
Seiitember 22, IS.^O.
1S5\
" 1850.

" l.S,^0.

December 22, 1850.
1850.
Miirch 9, 18.51.
April 27, l?al.
June, IS.'il.
Jnly 19. 1851.
Ociober. 1852.
May. 1S53.
Jan nil ry, 1H54.
January, 1S54.
Auiriist, 1854
1854.
1S.54.
1S55.
1854.

560

APPENDIX.

' ! hi

!ij2 J,

"DOCUMENTS KKLATIN(t To TI' K \rNCIATl'KE OF THE MOST
PvEV. <\ BKDINI, AKCiiniSIlOl' Ob' THHBKS.
[From the New York Frccniiin's Jonrim', Sutnrdny, April 8tli, 1851]

Tmk Now Yo'-k Krpi(.^>i fuiL'ns Hiii'prisc tlait. in liis luttcrto tlu; ArcliLisliop
of Kiiltiiiiori', MoMsu'iriiLMir Bediiii 'lous not spe.ilc of U','o Uiissi, ami dooji
not cle^cciid to a jiistiHcntion of )iimself from tlic oiiluinnica of whicli tliat
pajHr miiilo it:^elf so nt'coiniaoilatiii'jr nn cclio. lint tlio /i'lyi/r.'W fortjcts that
the Nuncio iliil not aililross iiis oomniiiniciition to the Messrs. T5ri)oi<s ; nnJ
does it sni'posc tliat wp, ('iitiiolic.*, noud to liavo the oliarjjos of the Italian
rt'fnf;e(*s refuted ? The Kvprefs, jiowcvor, it* too quick in its exultation, if it
tliinks \iiat no one is ocoupied in tranioriui,' tcroliu'r the autlientic proofs of
the falseliood of wluit the Italian eniiirrants have ao shanicli^sly uttered.
We haso awopted tlie part tluit it was not proper for tlie eniiiRiit character
of II I'ontitical Envoy to assume, because it belongs to the press to undo thu
evil done by the press, and we ass\iro the editor of the /;>/'r^M that ho
shall have lost nothin;,' i)y waiting'. We base taken the pains to send to
Bologna some copies of the Keprtus containing the report of the Italian
meeting of last February (TtlO, the time when those unhappy people showed
the ass's courage in kicking at their a^stnt victim, Monseigneur having de-
parted two days bclbrc. The Wall-street journal must feel ' ery strange,
finding itself in the hands of honorable men in Iioloirnn ; but, in fact, wo
bad a desire to show to what a degree of madness the enemies of the Papacy
give themselves up in the blindness of their hatred. We asked, at tho
;-'ame time, that thoso to whom wc sent the Ku-jjress would be kind enough
0 furnish us some authentic documents relative to tlie military executions
,)i 13'1'J and ISJO. The following is the reply we receive from an honorable
judge of the Tribunale d'Appclo :

" BoLooNA, March 4, 1854.
* * * " I .see no better way of answering tho calumniators of Mon-
Beigneur Bedini, than to send to America an authentic copy of the military
ordinances of 1849 and 1850, by which martial law was proclaimed, and tho
military tribunal established ; and I might join to this a copy, word for
v/ord, of the dill'erent condemnations which were successively pronounced.
All these sentences are, without one exception, pronounced by a judgment
civil and military (' Guvlizio Statario t viilitario^), and signed bv tho <.a'neral
in command, who was at once civil and military governor. The tifiy indi-
viduals cited by the American pajjcrs as liaving been put to death and
skinned by Monseiji'neur while he was Pontifical Commissioner Extraordi-
nary, I tiiid recorded in the ga/cttes of Bologna between the months of
May, 1819, and September, 1850; and I read there tliat they were all ar-
rested, condemned, and shot by the Austrian military commandant, and
not by the Pontifical Commissioner; and their condemnations, as well us tho
consequent executions, are published by notifications signed by tho mili
tary governor himself. On collecting tlie>o various items, with th(;ir rj.

I^^^ii

APPENDIX.

5G1

fact, wo

Papacy

I, at tlio

cnouirh

iceutioiis

ouoniMe

1854.
of Mon-
iDilitury

:uul tho
i-ord for
ounced.
lilgmeiit

jfeiicnil
Ity iudi-
lith and

traordi-
liitlis of
all ar-

|it, and
lis tho
) mill

|t;ir ro.

f.pectlvc dates, nnd scndini.' tlicm to Airipricii for |Mib|iontion, it «ocm«« to me
tiuit Moiisoi^iieur will be niado to triutiiph over liisi oulmnuiattir.^, and tlmt
they will ho forced to bliinh for their wiokedncss. I hiive eommeiiced tho
cxamiiiutioii of the^o ilocmaoiits, and if von wi?>h, I will coiitiiniu the labor.
" '^'c-tcrday I went from house to bouse, from (jtlicc to ollh'p, to nii-
uouhce to his friends the ;rood news of MoiJsei;,'neur'a arrival at Home, and
to nil it was n y>y i' ODmfort, an airrecablo surprise. Tho bap]\v return • '.

Ills Kxoillcnec si
lis gliul tidinjrs, uii,
him (IS a messenu'i
lector of every -

The honest j- .--i
any thing can be do

every one ns a eau>o of thankfulness to (Joil, .;
n for hope. In one word, the yieoplu here ' . '
1 and of peaec— tho sympatliizini,', aeti\ , pu
IS .leed of hel|),''

cr, dreams of the inip-isslble when he thinks
i;c these cahunidators blush.

lis >c NOiit t'llt im front qui lie rouKitjiuniils.
"Their clicfk lui.i lost the powor tu Mush,"

But beyond these urtiticers of falsehood, who have oars and hear not. and
outside of ('atholies who have no need of any refutation, tlurc is tho tri*cut
mass of the American piihilie, who have no other desire than to asoerlain
tho facts; and it is for thet^e that we will cause nil tho documents to bo
brought Ibrward of which our eurrespondcnt speaks.

If, in tho accomplishment of his high political functions, Monseigneur
Bedini had been reduced to the sad necessity "f ^ignlnir any sontencc of
tleath, we would not seek to exonerate liim from a rosponsi' 'lity that be-
longed to him. Washington was not an assasL-in for liavin _ signed tho
death-warrant of Major Andrf-; and he would have sent Arnold as v.'cll to
the scatfoM, had the traitor fallen into his hands. Kut it is a jiropcr thing
to sec that there if. " rendered to I'lesar the things that are Cu^sur's," and to
Austria the things that belong to Ar tria.

Aprnpoi, we have not yet heard that the Secretary of State has found
tho famous letter of Lewis Cass, Jr., whiidi had announced otiieially
to our government tlu^ mission intrusted to Monseigneur Pjcdini. But we
have in its place a document written by Mr. Cass to Monsciunicur Bedini
during the Lent of the last year, to recommend to him several Americans
■who desired to assist at tho procession of i'alm Sunday, and to receive a
palm from the liands of His Holiness. The letter terminates with tlieso
■words :

"iVoey our countrymen consider they have a right to address themselves
to you, esiiccially ns I have already amiounoed to my government your com-
plimentary mission, /or ichich I can, assure you beforehand a most distlngui^iteil
reception.''''*

Mr. Cass, in writing theue lines, had not his eve on the Italians of New
York.— II. D. C.

* Tho words were written in French by Mr. Ca.«s, anil wo givo tlioni :
"Maintennnt nos eotnpatriotos s'imdgiiient avoir le drnlt do s'a<lresscr .-i vous, sp6-
cialineiit comfiif j'ai dejX annonoo !,. inoa KouveiMenuut velie mission couipliuien-
taire, pour laquolle jo puis vous assiii'cr (i'MViiiu'e luio rooopli'vi bion disiiii^uoo."

24*

IMAGE EVALUATrON
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

^ '

1.0

I.I

1.25

!!f m

t. ,, — —

II 1.8
U 111.6

Photographic

Sciences
Corporation

23 WEST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

(716) 872-4503

V #, ^ ^,

y
^

562

APPENDIX.

il-:'-\

it:; ■'. (|

f '"-

The Italian Prtiujors rersui Bkuim — Iliuiii.v Ixikukstino Si'ekchks—"

COSDKMXATORV RESOLUTIONS AM) Un\XIM0I8 PllOCEEDINGS.
[Reported for the Now York Exiiress.]

A VEUY l;ir<re upspiiiljlntre of tlic Italians who were oblijreil to fly their
country for their devotion to the ciinsp of liljerty in 184S, entliered last iiisrht
at tlie Stuyvesant Institute, in order formally, and as a body, to declare their
opinions as to the jniblic and private eharaoter of Monseif^neur Bedini.
The room of the Young Men's Democratic National Club was excessively
crowded by the exiles, ainonof whom we observed several Italian Indies.
The proeeedinu's were marked by the wannest enthusiasm, and the coin-
pletest unanimity of feeling and action.

At eight o'clock, Siguor (Jajani nominated Professor Felix Foresti as
Chairman, which tiie meeting unanimously approved.

Signor Gfijani, in turn, was elected Viee-president, and Signor Miinetta,
Seeretary.

Letters of iipology were received from General Avezzana and Mr. Hugh
Forbes, both of whom declared their sympathies with the objects of the
meeting, but were unavoidably absent from serious indisposition.

A deputation of Frenchmen, from tlie ''Mountain Division of the Society
of Universal Republicans," here entered the room, and proceeded to the
President's table ; they were received with great cheering. One of tlieir
number addressed the President on behalf of the Society, after which thoy
retired to the front form, and remained during the entire proceedings.

iSignor Foresti then rose, amid reiterated applause and shouts of "Bravo,"
to address the meeting. Ho spoke in Italian, to this ett'ect :

" Bcdini entered the confjuered cii^ with his Croats.

lie, clothed with perfect sovereign power, proclaimed martuil law throughout
all the territory of the Four Legations. By this brutal law are suspended
ivt once all other laws, preservative of order and justice; customary form.s of
procedure abolished ; judges are constituted from soldiers of rank, and sen-
tence is sumuuirily passed, by tap of drum, to death, to the galleys, to
exile, to the bastinado. This law was enforced by a priest — by Bedini. It
came not, it could not come, from the Austrian general. To make or ab-
rogate laws is an attribute of sovereignty, and this attribute had been dele-
gated by the Pope to Bedini, and not to the general. ]5ut this law was a
terrible instrument of vengeance in the lumds of Bedini, and he made use
of it without mercy. "We defy the apologists of Bedini to deny it. Let
ihem read all the journals in the pay of the government at that accursed
epoch. They will see that in Bologna, in other cities, iii the towns or vil-
lages of the Four Legations, there were published numerous sentences of
death, of imprisonment, or of exile. They may lind in these journals the
names of the victims, and the day of their sacrifice. Tiiey will see that
the police of Bedini, like hungry wild beasts, hunted after and ferreted out
the republieans. On every side, families had some of their inemhers under
interdiction from leaving the house under severe penalties ; others sull'ering
domiciliary perquisition-; fur su.-pccted papiTs : at the posL-otficc, the »n-

\ Si'KECHKS— •
iUINOS.

<1 to fly their
;re(l last iiisrht
.) decliire tlieir
i^iienr Bedini.
as excessively
Jtaliiiu ladies,
and tiic com-

lix Forest! as

^'iior Mnnetta,

nd Mr. Hucfh
objects of tlie
on.

of tlic Society
ceeded to the
One of '.'.leir
:er wliicii they
cediuys.
s of "Bravo,"

til his Croats,
iw throughout
re suspended
tnary forms of
nk, and sen-
e galleys, to
)y Bedini. It
make or ab-
ad been dele-
is law was a
he made use
eny it. Let
that accursed
towns or vil-
sentences of
journals the
will see that
1 ferreted out
jmhers under
lurs snlferinfif
tfiec, tlie Bft-

APPENDIX.

563

erednesp of sealed letters was violated ; persons were summarily bnnished
without form cf trial ; for the slightest doubtful expression, or even word;
for the slightest >uspicion was awarded prison and persecution. The gov-
ernment of Bedini was, in short, a real I'dgin of terror.

•' Bedini, say his apolotrists, had not. the right or the power to chock or
modify the evils arising from the existence of martial law in the provinces.
But I ask, who could and who did proclaim this marital luio f The Sov-
ereign alone, the Pope. Who represented the Pope in the Four Legations?
Bedini.' What was the position of the Austrian general in Bologna? Sim-
ply that of a general, called and paid, together with his troops, to reconquer
for the Pope the Romagna from the power of the Kepublicans. Tlie spirit
and the will was Bedini — the corporeal part of the compound was the Aus-
trian general. Who collected and put into judicial form the evidence and
the witnesses to condemn the patriots? The local police. Who arrested
the persons suspeoted ? Wlio assigned their prisons ? Who directed their
administration ? Who named the Italian Cuncillire of the court-martial ?
Who caused the accused to be brought before the court-martial ? The local
poliee. Who was it who directed this police ? Bedini.

" For these reasons, the populations of the Romagna do not curse so much
the court-martial, but Bedini.

" Had such a service been undertaken by a military officer, he would, like
Haynau, have lost every particle of reputation for humanity. But what
shall we say of a priest, a minister of God, a preacher of the Gospel, a mea-
aenger of peace, who can undertake such an office ?"

M. G. Gajani next addressed the meeting, as follows :

"Ugo Bassi had also landed, and was seeking an

apylum in the same wood, when he was taken and made prisoner of war.
The body of troops who captured him was commanded by Prince Ernest,
»<on of the Archduke Rassini, who sent Bassi, with the other prisoners, to
Bologna, to bo placed at the disposition of the ' Extraordinary Commissioner
from the Four Legations.' This post is most important, because it bestows
soverei^'n power, and is never created but in very perilous times, .ind is
always given to a prospective cardinal leirate ; but it was then held by
Bedini, because no cardinal dared go to Bologna at that period. Each
Extraordinary Commissioner has annexed a so-called military commission,
to judge political crimes, of which council he is the supreme president ; it
IS composed of the most infamous of the Pope's police. Bedini had added
to it some Austrian officers, but only for form sake, as they did not under-
stand the Italian languasfe. General Gorzkowski, who commanded the Aus-
trian garrison at Bologna, had not the least authority over this council,
which alone was invested with judicial authority, and continued to sen-
tence criminals during the whole time that Bedini was there. Furthermore,
this general, who was iu Italy for the first time, and was ignorant of our
language and our affairs, certainly knew nothing of Bassi, and it could have
been no advantage to him to execute a poor priest who had oflfonded the
Pope by becoming a Christian ; and if he bud known him, he might possi*

564:

APPENDIX.

.-'■I

'•^- m

bly Imvc syinpatliy with liim, for (Jenprnl Gnrzkowr*l<i is nnt a Romanist.
But Bodini, who folt afruinst Bassl iiiiiliiriiity of casto, and the hatred of tlie
vile against tlio ;;roat and virtuous, sent liitn to the Connnission, with or-
ders to condcniu liini to dcatli ; but so great was Bassi's reputation for
talent and virtue, that even these vile instruments of barbarous venireance
hesitated. Bedini (so says a Turin paper) entered the eouncil-eluunber, and
ordered the sentence of death to be pronounced. Tiie whole eity was in
commotion, and multitudes interceded for Bassi, among whom was the old
Cardinal-archbishop Oppizzoni ; but Bedhii was inexorable, and ■cited a
special order of tlie Pope which lie had received j)re\ iously to tlie capture.
Thus it is not he, but his olHciousi defenders, who wish to shoulder tho
crime upon the Austrian general."

Sl'EECH OF SiGNOR MaNICTT.^.

" The friar Ugo Bassi, that spirit fired with poetic

patriotism, was made prisoner by tlio Austrians, at the same time with
Ludovico Liveraghi. Being sent to Bologna, his native city, he was joined
on the way by other prisoners, whom tlie Papal troops Inid hunted witliout
mercy. On the 7th cf August, those unhappy men enteral Bologna. What
liad happened was l<nown to all the city. Bassi and Liveraghi being
brought, by a mock process, before a court-martial, were condemned to
death. The Canon Oppizzoni, to -whom many impute the murder of tho
Bolognesc monk, made a visit to Bedini on this subject. Bedini, speaking
of Bassi, said, witli cold and implacable hardness of heart, ' The Pojie de-
sires his death.' Before executing his sentence, he determined that ho
flhould be barbarously martyred. The priests of tlie Vatican do not content
themselves with killing — that is a small revenge for tlicin — they wish to feel
the vitals of their dying victims palpitate in their hands — they wish to bo
drunk with blood — they desire to imitate the hyena, who, before devouring
Lis prey, tyrannizes over its agonies for a whole day, Ugo Bassi was dis-
consecrated ! The parts which liad been anointed with the holy oil were
skinned with the knives of the priests ; and on the morning of the Sth,
seven Croat bullets completed the sacrilegious holocaust."

Mr. Bisco next addressed the meeting in Italian, showing that Bedini
was tho person responsible for the barbarities committed in the Four Lega-
tions, during his administration of tho government from 184!) to 1852. He
especially demonstrated the falsehood of the assertion, that Ugo Bassi had
been executed in the hurry of martial law an<l insurrection. Ugo Bassi, he
said, was taken prisoner, near Comachio, by a patrol of Papal gend'arms
and Croats mixed, and was conducted about fifty miles, to Bologna. Bedini
himself urged his condemnation, while tho Archbishop of Bologna exerted
all the influence he possessed to have him spared. There was considerable
time consumed in all this, and in the ceremony of desecration, so cruelly
performed by the orders of Bedini — so nmeh time as to let the circumstance
of his condemnation become a fact well known tlirough the whole city the
night preceding his execution, which occurred at 5 p. m. on the morning of

lli.

APPENDIX.

565

Auffiist 8, 184S. Ilia destruction had long been decided upon by the Pnpal
authorities, if ever he fell into their hands. Ills having sincerely preached
liberal doctrines was u crime unpardonable in the eyes of the Popish ec-
clc-^iastics. llad Ugo Bassi been guilty oCrape, murder, theft, or any tliins,
such crimes as we consider infamous, we know, by too many examples, that
the incompetency of any secular tribunal to judge him would have been
instantly insisted on by the Eomish clerical authorities, for the honor and
inviolability of the sacred office of priest."

The resolutions, which had previously been presented in Italian by Signor
Gajani, were now read in English by Theodore Dwight, Esq., and passed
unanimously.

^^ Hesolsed, That this meeting echoes the universal sentiment of the Italian
people, in denouncing Bedini as the spy of the Pope in Bologna — as tiio
implacable, cruel, vindictive enemy of all republicans; and as the person
next responsible after the Pope for the butchery perpetrated at Bologna.

'■^ liesolced, That the various nationalities who have so generously demon-
strated their sympathy for the oppressed Italians, and their liorror for the
butcher of Bologna, are entitled to our warm thanks.

^^ Jiesolved, That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to Bedini and
to the Pope."

Bedini

Lega-

12. He

ssi had

;, he

[From the New York Express]
A Call ron Information.

Monseigneur Bedini, it is charged, during the revo-
lutionary struggle for freedom in Ittdy, in 1849 and 1850, ordered to execu-
tion a large number of persons who had espoused the liberal cause. Nay,
not only condemned them to death, but actually flayed them alive, and in-
dulged in sundry other acts of cruelty, which only a devil could devise.
That is the charge. It has been made over and over again. It is thrust in
the face of the Nuncio wherever he goes, and we have publications in which
names, dates, and other specifications are advanced thus :

Bate.

1.
2.

May 23,
June 7,

7.
8.
9.

July 24,

August 8,

10.
11.

September 1,
18,

12.

(( n

18.

U (t

14.

^i a

1S49.

A. Bortolottl
0. Mariani.. .

L. Prati

G. Lanzoni. . .
N. Sangiorgl
K. Germani . ,

L. Rioel

Ugo Bas.si

G. Lieraghi . .
S. ContoH....
G. Piiiochi...
G. Scrosta

S. Pl!l7.Zi....

G. Gorlni....

Years o/Affe.
21

23
24
4.5

26
23
21
4:5
43
19
23
.50
40
40

■ 1

566

Ko,

Date.

15.

Sept 18,

16.

21,

17.

27,

18.

October 8,

19.

" 80,

30.

u <>

21.

tl 11

22.

it ((

23.

December 28,

2t.

ii tl

25.

11 It

26.

January 3f»,

2T.

1. It

28.

February 21,

29.

March 23,

80.

11 11

81.

tt 11

83.

<t 11

88.

H tl

84.

April 6,

36.

September 6,

36.

U 11

87.

11 it

88.

ii 11

89.

U 11

40.

« It

41.

II 11

42.

II 11

48.

il It

II 11

45.

11 11

46.

11 11

47.

U It

11 II

49.

11 11

60.

« II

1849.

1860.

APPENDIX.

A.
N.
B
F.
A.
Q.
A.
B.

Kamet.

T. Gorinl

C. Scrosta

G. Baldinl ...
S. MiKanl

C. Gat i

Tiicconi

Maretti

Rlizl

Lore nzl III...
Tiicconl —

Selerl

Guerra

Caravlta . . .

G. Grozia

G. Montanari. .

D. Berto.ii....

A. Cagnazzi . . .
C. Montaniirl..

Gulmanelll.
Baruffiildi..
P. Zappi

B. Folli

O. Lftinberti...

A. Pogsfiali

J. Mirrf.

C. Ciisohtii....
G. Contavalli..

Folli

Lainberti. . .

Ciizziari

S. Borglii

G. Albertazzi. .

G. Farolfl

F. Mita

P. Moluzzi . . . .
A. Garottl

C.
L.

1).
L.
A.

Teart ofAgt^
40
88
83
27
21
20
25
23
29
28
28
25
28
80
80
25
27
81
2T
23
23
23
22
24
21
28
25
21
28
84
21
22
28
20
2 >
25

"We have said that the execution of all, and the extra torture of Pome, of
these persons, is said to have been the handiwork of Monseigneur Eedini.
The charge is made with sufficient definiteness and circumstantiality to
entitle it certainly to consideration, under tlio pccHliar circumstances in
which this ambassador of the Pope now finds himself. We do not know
that the allegations are true. Wo cannot say whether M. Bedini is a mur-
derer or not. But we should like to know, and it is "vith a view to arrive
at the truth tliat we give the extraordinary charges against him a place ia
our columns. We trust it will have the effect of bringing out the other side,
80 that, between the accused and his accusers, we may be enabled to form
an impartial judgment. We do not want vague denials for assertions, un-
supported by acknowledged facts. We earnestly desire M. Bedini's friends
to be at least as specific and particular, as regards dates and names, as hi»
opponents are. We have had denials in general terms, enough, to bo sure ;

reara o/Affa,
40
83
83
27
21
20
25
23
23
23
28
25
28
80
80
25
27
81
2T
23
23
23
22
24
21
28
25
21
23
84
21
22
28
20
2>
25

un-

APPENDIX.

507

(

but what we earnestly desire now are the specifications. Is it true tlint tho
above-mentioned persons were executed? 1« it true tliut tliey were exe-
cuted for political oll'ences, and that those offences were coniinitled during
the revolutionary struggle of 1848? Is it true that tliese men cunio to
their death by tiie instrumentality of Monseigneur Bedini? Is it true tliut
he not only deprived them of life, but that he compelled them to undergo
the most excruciating tortures, before life was extinct i Is it true that tlie
Lands of this illustrious stranger, whom our city government have been
formally honoring, are red with the blood of these Italian martyrs to Free-
dom? We call upon tho friends of M. Bedini to come

out in his defence, if they can ; to show the groundlessness of the grave
offences for which he is arraigned, if they can. We call upon the Freemaii's
Journal to speak out. Gentlemen, give us tiie documents I We have heard
the prosecution patiently — we are now prepared to pass to the defence !
What say you — guilty or not guilty ?

[From the official paper, Gazzetta dl Bologna, No. 117, May 18, 1849.]

Nolification.

On account of the stubborn resistance made with arms in hand to the tri-
umphant Austrian forces destined to re-establish in this city as elsewhere the
legitimate authority of the Supreme Pontiff", and on account of the faction of
wicked people, mostly foreigners, who had usurped the power in this place,
as well as on account of my desire to bring about peace and order, I have
come to the determination oi declaring fur the present that the city of Bologna
is in a state of siege. Accordingly I order what follows :

1. All persons who have arms of any kind, long or short, for cut or thrust,
or firearms, and all persons who have in their possession gunpowder or gun-
cotton, or any other warlike munitions, shall be obliged to give them all up
to the Commission appointed, and in the place named by the Magistracy,
within forty-eight hours from the publication of the present edict. In giv-
ing up such property each one is free to accompany it with a description of
the same, and with his name, for the purpose of reclaiming what belongs to
him in proper time. This clause does not extend to the corps of regular
troops.

2. The Pontifical Arms or Ensigns shall be put up again in tho usual
places without delay.

8. The political meetings known by the name of Circoli, Casini, and other
Buch titles, are forbidden.

4. Gatherings in the street, and other assemblages of a seditious nature,
are prohibited.

5. For the present no city gates shall remain open, except those of San
Felice, Galliera, Maggiore, and Castiglione, with the proviso that they shall
be closed from ten o'clock at night until daybreak.

6. By eleven o'clock at night all places of public resort shall be closed,
such as Hotels, Boarding-houses, Eating-houses, Taverns, Wine-shops,

508

APPENDIX.

Drinking-houses, Coffee-houses, and such like ; and citizens must retire to
their dwellings, not later than twelve o'clock at night.

In reference to the persons of I'liysiciaiis and Ecclesiastics, proper excep-
tion will be made by grunting such licenses as may bo needed.

7. The Press is subject to censorship before publication.

8. Volunteer companies {corpi franchi) of every kind arc disbanded; the
militia {la civka) is suspended, and the former and the latter shall give up
their arms and munitions.

It is forbidden to wear the uniform or badge belonging to the bodies
aforesaid, or to wear the tricolor cockade, or other similar i)arty badges. It
is strictly enjoined upon all persons, whose position calls for it, to wear the
bicolor pontifical cockade.

JJisuhedience and carelessness will he punished with the full ligor of martial
law, and let it be well viidevstuod, that this law condemns the offender, even for
Tioldinff or keeping warlike arms and munitions, ly having him tried hy court-
martial (giudizio slatario), and shot within twenty-four hours,

I hope that this exceptional state of things may cease in a short time,
through the good conduct and good sense of the citizens, and that the Envoy
of His Holiness, appointed to represent him, may soon directly and fully ex-
ercise his peaceful mission in your midst.

From head-quarters in Borgo Panigale, May 17, 1849.

GORZKOWSKI,

Royal Imperial Governor, Civil and Military, General of Cavalry.

[From the official paper, Gazzetta dl Bologna, May 26, 1849.]

Pontifical G overniient.

In the name of his Holiness, Pope Pius IX.,
To the people of the Legations of Bologna, Ferrara, Forli, and Kavenua.

J^dict.

To the end that in the four provinces of Bologna, Ferrara, Forli, and Ra-
venna, now restored to the dominion of the Holy See, the public adminis-
tration be no longer retarded, we announce and provisionally ordain as fol-
lows:

1. The government of the Sovereign PontitF is restored, and all acts shall
issue in his name. The Pontifical Commissary, invested with extraordinary
powers, is assisted by four Counsellors, one chosen for each province.

2. Each province shall have a Delegate with his Board of Counsellors.

8. The several police establishments are confirmed in each province with
the powers assigned by the Pontifical laws, the same to be in ordinary ser-
vice under the orders of the Civil Governor and local military authority, and
in other respects dependant on the Civil and Military Governor, and oq
Monsignorc the Commissary resident at Bologna.

4. (Restores the mail communication.)

5. (Restores censorship of the press.)

6. (Restores officers in oifice on the Ifith November, 1848.)

APPEJSDIX.

669

it retire to
per excep-

ndod ; tlie
11 give up

the bodies
judges. It
0 wear the

of martial
r, even for
d hy court-

hort time,
the Envoy
id fully ex-

1849.

of Cavalry.

Ravenua.

|, and Ra-

adminia-

lin as fol-

lacts bIiuU
prdinary

36.

Ilora.

|nce ■with

lary ser-

ity, and

and 01)

7. (Annuls any aliunntion of ecdcsiaHtical property.)

8. (Maintains municipal bodies as tlicy are.)

0. Judges and tribunals shall resume the exercise of their functions, ac-
cording to the laws and regulations in being on the ICth of November,
1848, and their decisions shall bo executed in the name of his Holiness I'opo
Pius IX.

10. Causes pending can bo resumed only before competent judges and
tribunals in the state and position in which tliey are, by the simple act of an
attorney, or parties where there is no attorney.

C. Beui.ni.
Bologna, May 2G, 1849.

[From the official paper, Gaztetta (11 Bolognn, No. 183, Juno 6, 1849.]
I^^olijication.

For the purpose of making known to everybody what crimes, transgres-
fiions, and derelictions of duty are judged by tiie military authorities and tlio
laws of war; and, on the other hand, for the purpose of checking the bold-
ness and malice of some who seek to elude the regulations having for their
aim the safety of the state, of tlie army, of person, and of property, I find it
necessary to declare as follows :

All crimes, transgressions, and derelictions of duty taking place in the
Four Legations of Bologna, Ferrara, Kavenna, and Forli, arc judged by the
military authorities, or by tlie ordinary civil authorities. The military au-
thorities juilgo either by Court-Martial {(jludizio statario), or by Council of
War {coiviilio dl guerra). The Court-Martial (lo statario) knows no puuish-
mcnt but that of death.

A. — By the Court-Martial (xtatario) arc judged the following offences :

1. High-Treason; and hence every act directed to change forcibly the ri ' ■
tern of Government, or to draw upon it or to increase any danger from oiii,-
tiide tlie state.

2. The keeping, hiding, and transmitting of arms and munitions. Con-
S3quently the public is specially forewarned that capital sentence will be
pronounced upon any individual, without distinction of rank or of previous
irreproachable conduct, if arms or warlike munitions be found upon his
person, or in his dwelling, or in any place where it can be proven that they
were put by his act.

8. rarticiimtion in insurrectionary movements or sedition, with anna or
■without.

4. Illegal enrolling, as also every attempt to induce to desertion individuals
bound to the military service.

5. Actual or violent resistance against sentinels, platoons, and in general
against Austrian or Pontifical soldiers, among whom are comprised the uni-
formetl constabulary (i carahiniei-i). Notice is given that sentinels and
platoons have the right to fire upon those who should molest them.

6. Kobbery and plunder by violence, whether with the use of arms or
■without, and whether it be the work of one or more persons.

1-4(4

670

APPENDIX.

B.— By ft Council of AVur are judged tlio following oflfences :

7. Tlic K|ireadinjf of revolutionary documents.

8. Every oiitruge towarda a military jiersou not embraced under No. 5 of
tlii;! article.

9. Tiie beariMfjr of rcvolutioiinry or party badges not Austrian or Pontiflca\.

10. Tlie flinging of revolutionary songs.

11. All kind, of public political dcniunstrations in the streets, or in other
public places.

12. Any ilisobedionco to the orders and intimations of military authorities,
seniineis, platoons, ifec.

13. Street gatlieriiigs and other assemblnges of a seditious character.

14. Attending political meetings, whatever their mime, unles.-* embraced
under iho regulations set forth under the letter A.

15. Omitting to clo,>c Colfce-houses, Eating-houses, Taverns, and other
places of resort at the establisiied hour.

16. Any transgression against the precautionary censorsiiip of the Press.

17. Harboring strange persons without informing the authorities.

18. Destroying wantonly or tearing down Pontilical Arms or Ensigns.
All such otfeiicea will bo punished, according to the importance of the

case, by imprisonment from one month to one or more years, or again by a
fine for the beiieflt of some charitable institution.

All other crimes, transgrer*sions, or omissions, not embraced tmder the ar-
ticles headed by the letters A und B, are judged according to the existing
Pontilical laws by the proper civil authorities.

Ej'oni head-quarters in the Villa Spada, June 5, 1849.

GoKZKOWSKr,

Imperial Koyal Governor, Civil and Military, General of Cavalry.

[From the official paper, Gazzetta di Bologna, No. 207, September 6, 1849.]

Notijication.

In reference to Article 6 of the proclamation 5th of last June, which places
under the cognizance of the court-martial (gludizio atatario inilUare) all of-
fences of robbery and plunder by violence, and talking into consideration the
inva>ion8 and de|iredations which have been going on for some time past in
the country, to the serious loss and terror of peaceable inhabitants through
tlie acts of lawle>s men who prowl about witli am ■*, and who up to the pres-
ent liave inaiuiged to escape the vigilance of the armed police, the })ublic are
informed us follows:

1. In addition to the respectable reinforcements sent to the corps of armed
policemen {caraOinieri), wlio justly claim the merit of several important ar-
rests recently made, strong movable columns of the Imperial Koyal troops
will traverse the ne'.ghborhoods most infected by Brigands, so as to discover
tlieir haunts, to arrest them, and shoot immediately all of them,

(a.) who should be taken in the flagrant act of an aggression or invasion;

(6.) who should otter resistauce to the armed force ;

Oi- • I

dcr No. 6 of

Dr Pontiflca\.

I, or in other

! authorities,

racter.

srt embraced

I, and other

'the Press.

tiC8.

Knsigna.
tuuce of the
>r ugain by a

inder tiie nr-
tlie existing

1 1849.

of Cavalry.

hich places
'are) all of-
eration the

me past in
its through
0 tlie prea-

j)ublic are

a of armed
jortant ar-
lyal troops
lo discover

invasion ;

APPENDIX.

571

(f.) who, even without opposition, Bhould ho found holding unlawfully
flrearms or otiier deadly weiipons, and ifuilty of foiuior crimes ;

^(/.) wlio should he iiceoniplicos of the crimes of ilic^o bandits by their
own acts, whether by urti-riii^' to give tliciu siielter, or by ailvisiii^ tiiem of
tile diiiiger near at hand, or by giving in any otiier way, of their own accord,
aid and comfort to the same.

2. It is not probalhe that such evil-doers can hold outlonsr, where they do
not meet with active, or at least pa.-sivc, iiid on the part of their respective
towns hiid viiliigcs, wliich are obli;;cd to keep watch over tlio couhtry, es-
pecially at night, and to lunder idlers and vagal)onds from roving at large;
BO therefore it is enacted that every townslii[) {coinminie) legally proven to
liavo tolerated, sheltered, or supiiorted sueli evil-doers, to have advised
them that tlie armetl force was near at hand or already on the spot, lo have
given in any way direct or indirect aid mid comfort to tlio same, shall lie
mulcted in a sum to be settled according to the circumstances of tlie case.
One half of this sum shall go to reimhur.^o the injuretl parlies, and the other
lialf to llio accusers, iftliere should be any, their name being kept secret.

8. Any person giving up to the military force, or to the police, a brigand
under sentence of arrest, and any person giving information leading to the
discovery and arrest of evil-doers held guilty of crimes against the puldio
Halety, and found to be such by the court-martial ((/iudizio utatario), or by
the council of war, shall receive a reward of tVom $!i(J to $100, according to
the importance of the case, and the denouncer shall be kept secret.

4. Pulilic otHcers convicted of having neglected their duty in invigilating
and effecting the arrests of such evil-doers, siiall be deprived of their phices
furthwilh, and take their chance before the criminal courts, in case they
should have acted furthermore witli wilfid malice. Those who draw no
salary shall be punished by imprisonment proportioned to their guilt.

From the Imperial Uoyul Governor, Civil ntid Military,

Count Sthasoluo,
Imperial lioyal Lieutenant-Marshal.

Extract from the official gazrtte, givmo the Hcntevcea provounced by the
Austrian Military Authority on i/te Fifty Patriots, said to have been
viurdtred by Muiinitjuor Bedini.

1. BouTOLOTTi Antonio.
[CJazzetta di Bologna, No. 123, May 24, 1849.]

To the Chief of Police, Bologna.

Having been arrested l)y the military forces, the celebrated robber and
murderer, Antonio Bortolotli, was brought to-day before the couri-marlial
{gludizio statario miiitare), condemned to death, and shot. While this exe-
cution is othciaUy communicated to tlie Chief of I'olice for the information
of the civil authorities, he is instructed to make it public through the Press.

Ilead-quarters at Villa Spada, May 'So, lS4t>.

GOKZKOWSKI,

Koyal Imperial Governor, Civil and Military, General of Cavalry.

572

A IT EN nix.

I f

2. Maiiuni Costantino. — 3. Tuati Liiioi. — I. Laxzoni Giovanni.

[CJiizz.'ttii (II noldcnij, No. !■'!», Jmio S, 1S49.]

Tlie following iiotici! 1ms liooii pulilislKul lo-iliiy :

II'iH Kxcc'IliMicy tlio Kojftl Iiii|)crial Govoriior Civil ami Militnry, Ooncral of
riiviilry, liy imimiiis of a unv (■iiiimnt tlispatoli, No. a74, dutcil tliis •.lay, litis
orJeroil tlm Cliiofur rolion to jnil>!i.Hli as t'ollowt* :

Costiuitiiio Mariaiii, hiiriiamocl Soiiiaroiio. son of Domonico liviiiur, njrod
2!?, iiniiiarrictl, poasniit, bora in this iiarish of Cariiiiiota di Ousciiu, residing
ill tlio paiisli of San Carlo.

Luijri I'mti, Hiiniaiiicil Sooppotio, of tlio township of Hcrtinoro, t\ffc.d 24,
uninarrieil, jioasaiit. IJotli of whom have bui'ii several times piini.-lu'il for
robbery ami burirlary, ami rueeiilly imlicteil for similar erimus, and particu-
larly lor a iiianslaughter couniiittod on the porsou of tlicir comrade Tietro
IJcttaiii.

Lanzoni Giovanni, son of An/?olo decouHcd, native of Stiatico, ngod 43,
public cxociitioiier of this city, also punished several times for larceny.

All three, held jruilty for jrood reasons of hijrhway robbery, were arrested
iiriiis in hand, and therefore brought before tlio court-martial {giudizio statU'
rio) on the 7tli iiist., and sentenced to bo shot; they wero accordingly ox-
ecuted the Hamc ilay.

Bologna, Juno 7, is4t>.
r. Roberti, Chief of Tolico of the rrovlnce.

6. Sanoiougi Natale. — G, Oermani Raffaele.

[Ga/zottii ill Bologna, No. 148, June 26, 1849.]

Notijication.

Gcrinani KalTacIc, native of Bologna, aged 23, married, no children, ropo-
makcr by trade, was caught on the 2;kl inst., at seven o'clock, V. M., hiding
at the corner of a ntrect with a pistol in his hand, which lie uimed without
effect at nn Austrian soldier who was passing bj the .spot. Gerinani was
brought before tho court-martial {(jiudizio statario) on the 24th inst., And
Bcntenced to be shot.

Nntale Sangiorgi, surnamcd Risino, native of Solarolo, aged 26, laborer,
•was arrested on the 21st inst., at Castel Bologncse, with a blunderbuss in
his hand and a dagger, brought this day beibro tho court-martial tmd sc*i-
tenced to be shot.

The sentences wero executed on the 24th inst., at seven o'clock, tho bad
qualities of both the condemned standing against them, for they had both
been indicted before for robbery and maiislauLrhter. If the circumstancea
of the present time compelled mo to have the above scnteiicos executed, I
am still comforted by tho thought that this salutary warning fell upon in-
dividuals already judged to be evil and dangerous to society. I trust that I
shall not be called upon for tho future to resort to such .severe measures,
and to contribute my share in preventing the occasion, I hereby grant for
tho last time to tho inhabitants of the Four Legations the peremptory term

lOVANNt

•, Ooiicral of
hm duy, liiis

liviiiur, njrod
iiiu, residing

TO, aftcd 24,
niniflifil tor
iiid parlic'U-
iriulo I'iotro

!0, agod 43,
irceny.
cro iirrested
udizio stuUi'
ordiiigly ox-

Idren, ropo-
M., hiding

jcd without
riniuii WU8
iuist., ft«d

kc, hihorer,
Iderhiiss in
ll luid scu-

P<, tho bad

had both
|iiiistaiic'ea
fcciited, I
upon iti-
Inst tliiit I
liieasures,
Igrant for
Itory term

APPENDIX.

573

of three flays, ooimtlnjr from tlio puhilcMtion of tho pronent document, du-
ring whioli they may tfivo up all arms nml munitions of war, tbrowarnitig ail
tliat aftor snoli tcrni I will cxoo'ito tho law to it.s fullest rigor uguinHt every
otluiider, no matter wliu lio niav bu.

floHZKOWSKF,

lioyal Imperial Civil and Military (iovernur, Gonerul of Cavalry.

7. Rirci Luioi.

[Oiizrclla (11 noloitnn, No. 173, .Tiily 2.'), IStO.]

Lnigi Kiooi (and not Hii'('l\ .Hiiniamcd IVttiloni, son of Haptist dccoaspd,
nnd of Maria I'assailura, nalivo of Santa Agiita in tlio territory of Faonza,
aged 21, already eondemned to perpetual iinf)risoiiment for robbi-ry, niarlo
his eseape while he was being eonveyed to tho workhouse. In the month
of June la^t ho was caught with a gun and pistol in his Juuid : ho jumped out
of a window to run away, and aimed his pistol at the foreo by which he waa
followed. Uicei was brought before the court-martial (<jiw/izio sla/irrio) otx
the 2lth inst., lie was condemned to bo shot, und Iho Hcntcnco was executed
the same day at six o'clock, P. M.

8. BaSSI UgO. — {). LlVRAQIlI OlOVANNr.

[Oftzzotta til Bolognn, No. ISO, August 8, 1340.]

Tho Imperial Royal Austrian troops, by their untiring activity, have final-
ly succeeded in breaking up altogether tho gangs of the iU)torious Garibaldi,
which under tho color of patriotism caused this neighborhood to swarm
with adventurers, robbers, and assa.s.sins. Surroundtul little by little on ev-
ery aide by tho Imperial Koyal troops, especially those bclo/iging to the bri-
gade of the youtlifid and bravo Major-general Archduke Ernest, these gang.s
finally established themselves on a firm footing in the territory of San Marino,

However, as Garibaldi saw that tho Imperial Koyal Commanders would
not be disposed in any way to reeogni/e in hitn an adversary worthy of be-
ing allowed to capitulate, but that they would constantly insist upon his
surrendering at discretion, he found it the V)cttcr plan, for the safety of hia
own person and family, to get otf under cover of night, together with about
a hundred of liis most trusty followers, going by Sogliano and Savignauo,
towards the seaboard.

With success worthy of a better cause, he succeeded, in fact, in reaching
tho port of Cesenutico, and after having compelled the terrilied inhabitants
to furnish him with whatever could be laid hold of, not caring a^all about
the fate of his followers, he embarked, at eight o'clock on the morning of
the 2d instant, on some fishing barks which lie found in the place.

Notwithstanding his flight, there is hope left that ho may fall in with the
Imperial Koyal forces on tho watch towards Rimini, as, with the small cruft
on which he has trusted himself, it is next to impossible to put to sea.

His companions, left to themselves, and being without hope of escape,
Burrendered, to the number of about nine hundred, to the Imperial Koyal
Austrian troops, sent to Rimini by bis Excelloncy, General of Cavalry, Goi-a-

574

APPENDIX,

kowski, Civil nnd Military Governor, who, for the purpose of insuring
prompt nnd active measures, was on tiie spot in person. — [Gazzetta, d;c,, Ko,
181, Auf/ujt Uh.)

!,("; n »il

i . i!

BOI.OGNA, AuiTUSt 4tll.

Aa we foresaw yesterday, it would have been inipraeticabie for Garibaldi,
with a few foilnwers and his fishinsr smacks, to fjet out to sea witJiout op-
position from the Imperial Koyal flotilla beatimj the waters of the Adriatic.

The fact was, that he fell in with it, and after losini^ some of his boats,
ho was driven in shore in the neit;hborhood of Majifnavacca, where he
made bold to land ; but the energetic and far-secinj^ General of Cavalry,
Gorzkowski, Civil and Military Governor, presupposing: that sucii would be
the en ^e, had already ordered live companies of Anstrian troops, with two
field-picecs and a dctichinent of cavalry, to scour that coast.

These troops captured two of Garibnldi's followers yesterday, nnd gave
chnse to the others who were stra/jfglinnr in the neifrhborinc^ woods, and
making every effort to escape. So then, if the bold adventurer does not
succeed in getting away unknown and alone, there is every prospect of hia
being speedily caught. — {Gaz:.itta, dbc, Nu. 184, August 8th,)

Ht::i

The notorious Ugo Bassi, of Bologna, and Giovanni Livrnghi (not Lie-
raghi), of Milan, an Austrian deserter, both officers of the Garibaldi gang,
were taken with arms in hand in the Pontifical territory; were therefore
found guilty, and executed this 8th day of August, 1849, in Bologna.

JS^otlficatton,

The corps of Garibaldi have been nearly all taken prisoners, either on
land by the Imperial Koyal tronpa pressing upon their tracks, or at sea by
the Austrian forces composing the flotilla of the Adriatic. Some, however,
of this band of marauders have succeeded in getting at large, either before
the embarkation at Cesenatico, when they were chased by the troops on
land, or after the debarkation at Magnavacca, when they were driven back
by the maritime force. Among these is Garibaldi himself, who bears with
him his wife, in an advanced state of pregnancy.

All good citizens, especially in tiie country, are kept in a stnte of excite-
ment by these dangerous individuals being hidden in their neighborhood.
Every one is reminded tliat it is forbidden to give aid or comfort, shelter
or cuuntenancc, in any way, to such evil-doers; and it is the duty of every
good citizen to drive them from him, and help all he can to discover them,
and to give them up to justice. And all are forewarned tliat any person who
shall knowingly assist, shelter, or countenance the fugitive Gar"-uldi, or any
individual of the gang by hiir led and "ommanded, shall be subject to the
judgment of tiie court-martia' ^^gludizio statai-w milUare).

From liead-quarters in V'il a Spada (near Bologna), Ar^ust 5th, 1849.

Goiujiowski,
Imperial Eoyal Governor, Civil aud ililita*y, General of Cavalry.

WL^

of insurinsf
dtu, die., No.

itirnst 4t1i.
or Giiribiildi,
without op-
le A<lriatie.
jf liis boiits,
■I, wliere he
I of Cavalry,
icli would be
ps, with two

[vy, and gave

woods, and

rer does not

ospect of his

:hi (not Lie-
ribaldi gan?,
pre therefore
ogna.

rs, either on

)r at sea by

le, however,

itiicr before

troops on

Iriven back

bears with

e of excite-

ghborhood.

T^brt, slielter

jty of every

)ovc.r them,

lerson who

Jildi, or any

ject to the

1849.

jf Cavalry.

APPENDIX.

10. CONTOLI SaNTE.

675

[Gazzettn, Ac, No. 205, September 8d.]

Santo Contoli. nicknamed Fajrgloliuo, sou of Vincenzo and Annnnziata, aged
nineteen, unmarried, carpenter by trade, born and re.-iding at Imola, arrested
for bearing arms. His case having been introduced and discussed on yes-
terday, September 1st, the court-nuirtial on the same day passed seutence
that, considering the excessively bad antecedents of Contoli, who was for-
merly condemned to one year of hard labor on account of a wound he in-
flicted, who belongs to the notorious gang commonly culled the " Squadrazza
of Imola," and who was held, for serious reasons, to be the author of five
cases of manslaughter, that lie should be condemned to death, and shot.
The sentence was executed on the same day.

Bologna, September 2d, 1849.

11. PiNoccHi Giovanni, — 12. Scrosta Nicola. — 13. Plazzi Savkrio.—
14. GoRi.Ni Giuseppe. — 15. Gorini Taddeo. — 16. Scrosta C.

(The last mentioned is not to be found among the condemned of this
period.)

[Gazzetta, &c., No. 217, September 18th, 1849,]

In accordance with the terms of the notifications of May iTth and of the
5th of June last, and 5th of September, instant, the following individuals
were condemned to death by court-martial [miUtate statario), and shot :

1. Giovanni Pinocchi, native of the plain of .'^an Lazaro d'Aneona, aged
23, porter by trade, convicted of having taken from an Imperial soldier his
bayonet, and with it stabbed another soldier in the thigh.

2. Nicola Scrosta, of Castelfidardo, aged 50, peasant, on previous ocoa-
Bions tried and punished for robberies and violence ; an individual of ex-
cessively bad fame. On account of a gun found in his house loaded with
buckshot and ready capped.

8. Saverio Plazzi, of Cotignola, aged 40, laborer, already condemned as an
accomplice in committing a manslaughter; an individual of the worst repu-
tation ; for having been found in possession of a loaded gun.

4. Giuseppe Gorini ; and,

5. Taddeo Gorini, both of Budrio, laborers, and guilty of previous crimes;
having been caught possessing arms.

lY. Baldini Giuseppe.

[Gazzetta, &c., No. 227, September 29th.]

On September 21st were discovered by the public force during the night,
near Alfonsine, five assassins, while attempting to enter, with arms in hand,
the house of the farmer Corini. One was severely wounded ; another, by
name Giuseppe Baldini, called Plazzioi, a moat wicked subject, son of Fran*

• ; ?;

i' i-

570

APPENDIX.

cesco, deceased, wns arrested. Being brought before t!ic court-martini
(ronsilio sfatario), tliis man -was condemned to bo shot. The sentence was
executed in Lugo, on the 2i)th instant.
Bologna, September 28th, 1841).

18. MiGANi Sante.

[Gazzetta, &c., No. 233, October 8tli.]

Migani Sante, surnamcd Tamburo, son of Domenico Antonio, living, nged
27, married, has children, peasant, of Passano, under the governorship of
Coriano, condemned to imprisonment for life for burglary and robbery, es-
caped from tlie fortress of Forli. Having been subsequently arrested, and
found bearing a long, sharp dagger, he was brought before tlie court-martial
{(jiudizlo statai'io), and there, on Saturday, October (jth, Sante Migani was
condemned by a unanimous vote to be shot. The sentence was executed
the same day, in Bologna.

19. Gatti Carlo. — 20. Tacooni Antonio. — 21. Moretti Vincenzo. — 22.

Rizzi LUIGT,
[Gazzetta, &c., No. 263, October Slst.]
Iatperial Royal Government, Ch'il and Military.

Notice.

The strict surveillance exercised over the evil-doers and vagabonds who
swarm in the territory of the Legation of Bologna, and the activity with
which they are treated according to the terms of martial law in cases of at-
tempts and crimes against the safety of persons and of property, have not
sufficed, up to the present time, to hinder entirely such misdeeds, for tliey
are repeated from time to time in this neighborhood, and even in the city
of Bologna. Yesterday, however, an unheard-of burglary and robbery was
committed with unusual boldness, in broad daylight, in one of the principal
thoroughfares of this city, at San Felice, in the house of Marquis Descarani.
Several armed individuals effected an entrance into the rooms of the Secre-
tariate, situated on the ground-floor. They used outrageous violence on
the only clerk who was there at the time, and, muffling him up in a cloak,
they took possession of all the money and valuable effects they could lay
their hands on.

By a fortunate accident, the thieves having fled with their booty, were
discovered almost immediatelj', in the sliop of the shoemaker Luigi Kizzi,
at the bridge of Sant'Aroangelo, one of the accomplices, where the police
force succeeded, with the assistance of the Imperial Royal soldiery, in cap-
turing the four individuals hereinafter mentioned, and nearly all the stolen
property.

Carlo GatM, son of Domenico, deceased, aged 21, ropemaker by trade, un-
married, resident in Sologna.

}

couvt-mnrt'ml
Bcntenco was

, livinf,', ftgcfl
ircrnoi'rtliip of
1 robbery, ea-
arrcsted, and
court-mnrtiul
3 Migani was
was executed

INCKNZO. 22.

a Military.

igabonds who
activity with
|u cases of at-
irty, have not
eds, for they
11 in the city
robbery was
the principal
is Descarani.
of the Secre-
violenco on
[ip in a cloak,
|iey could lay

booty, were

Luigi Kizzi,

\e the police

fiery, in cap-

11 the stolen

U trade, un-

AITENDIX.

577

Antonio Tacconi, son of Odoardo, deceased, aged 20, blacksmith, unmar-
ried, from Lavino di Mezzo.

Vinconzo Moretti, t>on of Carlo, deceased, surnamcd Jl guercio, aged 25,
uhoemaker, unmarried, residing in Bologna.

Luigi Kizzi, son of Domenico, living, aged 28, shoemaker, unmarried, also
of Bologna.

The proofs of the guilt of these four evil-doers of notorious bad charac-
ter, already well known for previous outrages, were so strong, that, in spite
of their obstinate denial, it was impossible to hesitate on the application to
tlieir new crime of the military law {legge stataria) to its full extent.

In accordance, therefore, with tlie tenor of the notifications of the Impe-
rial Koyal government, civil and military, dated June r)th and September
Cth of the present year, they were all four condemned to death and shot
forthwith, near the guardhouse of Sant'Agnese, in the midst of a large con-
course of the population, who, being terrified by the outrages and robberies
that are repeated even in the middle of the city, and by the difficulty of
finding out their autJiors, called for a prompt infliction of well-deserved
punishment in this case, in which Divine Providence brought the guilty so
tpeedily into tlie hands of justice, as a solemn and salutary warning to
otlier evil-doers.

Bologna, October ROth, 1840.

2.3. LoRENZiNi FiLFPPo. — 24. Tacconi Antonio. — 25. Sellkri Gaetano.
[Gazzetta, &c., No. 300, December 29th.]

1. Lorenzini Filippo, son of Angclo, living, aged 19, born in Baricella;

2. Tacconi Antonio, son of Domenico, living, aged 26, bom in Minerbio ;
8. Selleri Gnctano, son of Luigi, deceased, aged 26, born in Altedo, all

three unmarried, country laborers, residing at Ca de' Fabbi, governorship
of Budrio, on the evening of the 21st instant entered, arms in hand, the
country residence and actual dwelling-place of Signor Antonio Codini, situ-
ated in San (Horgio di Piano, with the intention of robbing him by violence
of his money.

They knocked at the front door and passed themselves off for policemen,
by the word " /V^^wm," and the door was opened, Lorenzini entered first,
and collaring the rustic who had opened the door, threatened to kill him,
and commanded him to point out to them the room of his master. Tac-
coni and Sclleri entered almost at the same moment, and went up stairs
with the servant to the second story, and to the rooms where Signor Codini
was, with his family. The public force of the Pontifical Light Infantry, of
the detachment of S.an Giorgio, being previously apprised in secret of this
business, had been lying in wait in the place since the evening before, and
arrested in flagrante Lorenzini alone, while the other two, Tacconi and
Selleri, took to their heels, going out the same way they had entered, the
door having been left open. During the night, however, they too were ar-
rested

The trial having come on, one made a full confession of hia guilt ; the

578

APPENDIX.

V. !<!

Other two, nUlionofh dcnyin;^ every thing, were convicted by the confession
of tiieir accomplice and the deposition of witnesses. Yesterday tiieir ctiso
•was laid before tiie coiirt-inartiul {ci'iudlzio atiturio), and afier discu3>ion,
they were all three found guilty of the invasion as above described, and
condemned to be shot.

Tiie sentence was executed yesterday at 3 o'clock p. m., at Bologna, in the
meadow of Sant' Antonio.

26. Gderra Antonio. — 2*7. Cauavita Bonafedk. — 28. Grazia Or,

(The last mentioned is not to be Ibund among the condemned of thiu
period.)

[Qazzetta di Bologna, No. 26, January 3l8t]

Bologna, January 81st, 1850.

Towards evening on the 14th day of August, 1849, a gang of seven or
eight armed marauders entered the dwelling of the brothers Amadei, landed
proprietors of San Savino, parish of Fusignano, robbing them, with vio-
lence and cruelty, of the best that could be found, to the value of $197.42.

The following persons were legally convicted of the crime :

1. Guerra Antcnio, surnamed Scaranino, son of Luigi, deceased, aged 25,
Tinmarried, born at Fusignano, residing near Lugo ;

2. Caravita Bonafede, aged 23, unmarried ;
8. Caravita Francesco, aged 27, married ;

4. Caravita Costanti, aged 25, unmarried: sons of Bartolommeo, deceased,
country laborers of Fusignano ; and yesterday, by sentence of the court-
martial (giudizio statario), the two first were condemned to be shot, which
was done the same day ; the other two were condemned to fifteen years' im-
prisonment each.

29. MoNTANARi Gaetano. — 30. Bertoni Domenico. — 31. Caqnazzi Ago8-

TIXO. — 32. MONTANARI CoSTANTE. — 33. GuLMANELLI CaRLO.

[Gazzetta, Ac, No. T4, April 2d, 1S50.]

Bologna, April 1st, 1850.
On the evening of the 20th of last March, an entrance was effected into
the house of Signer Mauro Vassura, proprietor, by six armed maraudera,
and a robbery committed of about $1000. The following persona were ar-
rested as authors of the crime :

1. Bianchi Gaetano, born at Ferrara, porter, married, with children, aged
88, residing in Borgo Adriano.

2. Montanari Costante, surnamed Guaccio, aged 31, laborer, born at Sau
Michele, married, with children, residing in Borgo Adriano.

8. Montanari Gaetano, surnamed Baiocco, laborer, born at Piangipane,
aged 80, married, with children, domicil in Borgo Adriano.

4. Gulmanelli Carlo, aged 27, born at Russi, unmarried, laborer, with no
fixed domicil.

5. Bertoni Domenico, surnamed Spentaccbione, porter, married, with chil-
lioD, aged 25, of Borgo Adriano

confosaion
their caso
liscu3>ion,
ribed, and

2na, in the

kZIA G.

lied of this

,l9t, 1850.
of seven or
ttdei, lunded
I, with vio-
f $197.42.

,ed, aged 25,

30, deceased,

■)f the couvt-

shot, which

sn years' im-

NAZZI AgOS-
lRLO.

list, 1850.

\ffected into
1 iniiraudere,
ins were ar-

lldren, aged

bora at San

Piangipane,

er, with no

L with chil-

APPENDIX.

579

6. Cagnazzi Agostino, surnamed 11 flglio delta Cavretta, aged 27, unmar-
ried, laborer, of Borgo Adrlano; all of bad fume for grievous larcenies,
having been found guilty by proofs, their own confession, the finding of a
good part of the stolen property, and of their weapons. On the 23d of
March they were sentenced by the court-martial {consilio sta(ario) to bo
shot. The sentence was executed on the same day, at eleven o'clock a. m.,
on the public square of the cuttle market, outside of Porta Adriana, in the
aforementioned city of Kavenna.

84. BAnUFFALDI LuiGi.
[Gdzzctta, &c., No. 77, April 5tli.]

EoLouNA, April 5th, 1850.

Baruffaldi Luigi, surnamed Scivolino, son of Girolamo, living, aged 23,
married, no children, ropemaker and fisherman, of Keno Ccntesc, was
Bought after by the police for repeated off'ences, especially in the lino of rob-
beries committed by him during the summer of 1S49, in the neighborhood
of Centese. He grew hardened, and gave himself up to the commission of
all sorts of outrages, and became the fear and terror of that neighborhood.
On the 24th day of last February, armed with pistol and dagger, he fell in
with one Nicola Franciosi, of Keno itself, and stopped him on tlie public
highway ; he compelled him to kneel down and stretch out his arms,
searched his person, and finding only a few coppers, treated him with con-
tempt, lie made him get up, however, and went with him to his dwelling.
Here he gave serious ill treatment to him and his family, and left, taking
with him a gun and some things to eat. He was arrested on the night of
26th, 27th of February last, having a gun and dagger, and was put in juil.
His process having been drawn up and laid before tlie court-martial {gludizio
statai'io), he was this day, April 4th, condemned to be shot. The sentence
was executed to-day, on the meadow of Sant' Antonio, in Bologna.

Bologna, April 4th, 1850.

35. Zappi Pasquale. — 36. Folli Davide. — 37. Lambeuti Gil'seppe. — 38.
PoGGiALi Antonio. — 39. Mirri Innocenzo. — 40. CascJi.ini Carlo. — 41.

CONTAVALLI GlUSEPPE. 42. FoLLI DoMENICO. — 43. LaMBERTI LuIGI.—

44. Cazziari Antonio. — 45. Borghi Sante. — 46. Albertazzi Giuseppe.
— 47. Farolfi Giuseppe. — 48. Mita Francesco. — 49. Meluzzi Paolo.

50. zolli b.\ttista.

(Garotti A, is not found to be among the condemned of this period.)
[Qazzetta, No. 202, September 6th.]

Bologna, September (ith, 1850.
I:aPERtAL EoTAL Government, Military and Civil.

I^otijtcation.
1. During the night of April 20th, si.x armed marauders forced open a
window and burglariously entered the dwelling-house of Giovanni Ser-
meuglii, surnamed Barabaniuo, situated in the parish of Qrtodouico. Ho

580

APPENDIX.

was robbed of the best ho had, to the vahic of |40 ; he was wounded, and
his daughter, wife of Antonio Gaiani, was violated.

2. Iti the dusk of the evening of July 2Gtli, 1849, four armed marauders
entered the dwelling-house of Andrea Costn, fanner, of Casola Canina, and
took away by violence a bale of liueia and a trilling sum of money — loss in
all about $7.

i5. Five robbers, early in the evening of lOth last January, went to Orto-
donioo, to the dwelling-house of Antonio Golinelli, and, by threats of arson
and murder, tliey extorted from him $2.16 in money.

4. Leaving that place, they went during the same night into the parish of
Poggiolo, at the place called Monticino, and with eimilar threats of arson and
murder, they extorted from the farmer of the place, Giacomo Dal Pozzo,
$1.03.

5. Passing themselves off for policemen, nine vagabonds, provided with
wooden stakes and a hedging-blade, went to the dwelling-liouse of Antonio
Contoli, of Gaiano, and breaking down the door at the entrance, they got
into the house, stealing money and effects to the value of $20. This bur-
glary took place during the night of January 20th.

6. On the evening of January 27th, about the time of the Ave Maria, a
gang of ten vagabonds burglariously entered the dwelling-house of the
farmer Agostino Tinti, in the parish of Castel Guelfo, having broken open
the door with their clubs ; and the said Tinti was violently robbed of money
and clfects to the value of $60.47.

7. Four vagabonds, at the liour of ten o'clock in the niglit of February
9th, went to the dwelling-house of Francesco Castelli, of Zello, and, with
threats of arson, they extorted from him money to the amount of $2.

8. On the 10th of last February, eight marauders, bearing arms, and hav-
ing their faces covered with handkerchiefs, breaking down the door, en-
tered burglariously the dwelling-house of farmer Antonio Passini, of Linaro,
and violently robbed him of money and effects to the amount of $238.

0. During the night of 17th February aforesaid, seven marauders, armed
with pistols and daggers, entered the farmhouse of Lorenzo Gardenghi, of
Castel San Pietro, having opened the door by violence, and robbed him of
money and effects to the amount of $100.

10. About eleven o'clock in the night of the said February 21st, three
evil-doers went to the dwelling of Domenico Savini, surnamed Ziona, of
Casola Canina, and extorted from him, by threats of arson and murder, $8.

11. On the evening of said February 23d, four malefactors extorted, by
threats of arson, from Sante Mongardi, surnamed Sulinda, of Casola Canina,
the sum of $11.25.

12. On the night of last March 2d, seven marauders, bearing arms, went
to the house of Giovanni Dal Pozzo, surnamed Dei Longoni, in Chiusura.
They attempted in vain to open the door of the dwelling, and were thus
unable to effect an entrance. They fired oft' their guns, however, and, by
threats of deatli, they extorted from Dal Pozzo the sum of $10.

13. Immediately afterwards, going to the house of Francesco Cavina, like-
wise of Chiusura, by threats of arson, they extorted from him the sum of
$10.50.

)unded, and

1 maraudcra
Canina, and
ncy — loss iu

vent to Orto-
eats of arson

tho parish of

of arson and

0 Dal Pozzo,

irovidcd with
36 of Antonio
mce, thoy got
0. This bur-

Avc Maria, a
house of the
; broken open
ibcd of money

It of February
iUo, and, with
. of $2.

iruis, and hav-
the door, en-
^ini, of Linaro,
.if $238.
iiudcrs, armed
iGiirdenghi, of
lobbed him of

ry 21st, three
led Ziona, of
murder, $8.
extorted, by

Laaola Canina,

Ig arms, went
I, in ChiuHura.
Ind were thua
}ever, and, by

Cavina, Hke-
the Buua of

APPENDIX.

581

14. Thirteen marauders, furnished with all sorts of weapons, went, during
the night of lust March 10th, to tlie dweliiiig-liouse of Sj^rnor Subastinno
Fantaguzzi, of Kiolo. Assuming the nume of \K)Vh:o, and disguising their
faces, they entered snid dwelling, and robbed Fantaguzzi of money and ef-
fects to the amount of $00.

15. Later during tlie same niglit, they went to the parsonage-house of
Ossano, and robl:)ed tlie parish priest, Don Giorgio Fautaguzzi, of money
and effects to tiio value of $')0.

16. About midnight on last Marcli Uth, eleven marauders, bearing arms,
opened by violence tho door of the parish church of Picdevra, and after-
wards that of the Canonical residence. Having their faces covered with
handkcrehiefs, and having assumed military badges, they entered and rob-
bed the arch-priest, Don Antonio Zaccarini, of $100.

17. On the nigiit of said March 27th, si.\ marauders, armed with guns,
came to tlie dwelling-house of Steplumo Seravalle, of Croee in Cainpo, and
attempted, without success, to open by violence the front door and eft'ect
an entrance. However, by threats of arson and murder, they extorted from
Seravalle aforesaid $1.20.

18. Immediately afterwards they passed to the domicil of Stcfano Gam-
betti, in San Prospero, and by threats of arson they extorted from him $2.40.

19. At tiie hour of eight o'clock in the evening of last April 7th, eleven
marauders bearing arms broke down several doors of the dwelling-liouse of
Antonio Loiighini, of Castel Gueltb, burglariously entered the premises and
violently robbed Longhini aforesaid of money and effects to the amount of
$82.1)0.

20. Five vagabonds, about midnight of la,st April 15th, came to the house
of Paolo Dal Monte, of Mezzolano, territory of Castel Bolognese, attempted
without success to break open the door, and by threats of death extorted
from said Dul Monte $30.

21. At ten o'clock at night of said April ISth, seven marauders came to
the canonical residence of Pcdiano; the;, cut the ropes of tiie bells, and
breaking down the doors they entered, having tiieir liices covered with
handkerchiefs. Thoy stole money and elfects to the amount of $40 and took
their departure, after having forcibly violated the domestic of the parish
priest, Signer Don Luigi Mirri.

22. Four marauders, armed with pistols and daggers, went on the evening
of said Ajiril oOth to the dwelling-house of Doincnico Bassani, fanner of
Mczzolaiio, and broke down the front door and ell'cetcd an entrance. Hav-
ing done outrageous violence to Bassani himself, putting a halter round hi.s
ueck, they robbed liim of money and ell'ccts to the value of $oO.

Sentence was pronounced on tlie authors of the foregoing crimes, on tlie
5th inst., by the council of war {conx'ujlio di c/uerra), and tiie following per-
sons were found guilty and condemned to be put to death by being shot.

1. Mondelli Domenico, son of Lorenzo deceased, aged 20, native of San
Prospero, residing in Ortodonico, unmarried, apprentice, surnamed Lizziri-
no, hitherto unindicted-

2. Zippi Pasqualc, son of Paolo deceased, aged 23, native of Sesto, re-

hml

582

APPENDIX.

Biding in Ortodonico, unmarried, laborer, Hurnamcd Btirconcino, liitlierto
unindicted.

8. Zolli Bftttistn, son of Simon living, ngcd 23, unmarried, native of San
Spirito, residing at Croec in Campo, peuHant, alias Batistazza, liithcrto unin-
dictetl.

4. Lamberti Giuseppe, son '^f' Francesco living, aged 22, native of Ortodo-
nico, resident of San Spiritu, umnarried, peasant, surnamed Kavioio Grande,
hitlierto unindicted.

5. I'oggiali Antonio, sou of Prospero Casadio, native and resident of San
Spirito, aged 24, unmarried, peasant, suruanied roggelli, hitlw;rto unin-
dicted.

6. Brusa Giuseppe, son of Giovanni living, aged 25, native of San Pros-
pero, resident of San Spirito, unmarried, servant-man and peasant, surnamed
11 Bundito, previously indicted for wounds inflicted, and condenmed to jail
for five years.

7. Mirri Innoccnzo, son of Francesco living, aged 21, native and resident
of San Spirito, alias Moniericco alias Prete, hitlie»to unindicted.

8. Casolini Carlo, son of Giacomo living, aged 28, native of Croce Coperta,
residing in Ponto Santo, unmarried, working-num, liitlierto unindicted.

9. Contavalli Giuseppe, son of Simon, aged 2o, native of Cantalupo, resi-
dent of Castel Nuovo, unmarried, peasant, nicknamed Ca lunga, liitlierto
unindicted.

10. Folli Davide, son of Paolo living, aged 24, native of San Spirito, resi-
ding in Casalecchio, unmarried, peasant, surnamed Gagliazziuo, hitherto
unindicted.

11. Lamberti Luigi, son of Francesco living, aged 21, native of Ortodonico,
residing in San Spirito, unmarried, peasant, surnamed Kavioio Piccolo,
hitherto riiindicted.

12. Cazziari Antonio, son of Domenico living, aged 18, native and resident;
of Casola Caniua, unmarried, shoemaker, surnamed Scapuzzo, hitherto un-
indicted.

13. Albertazzi Giuseppe, son of Domenico living, aged 22, native and resi-
dent of San Lorenzo di Dozza, married, peasant, surnamed Faffonc del Cas-
tellazzo, indicted heretofore for holding arms.

14. Borghi Sante, son of Luigi deceased, aged 83, native of Campiano,
residing at Serra, unmarried, peasant, alias Dal Luoghetto, hitherto unin-
dicted.

15. Farolfi Giuseppe, son of Domenico living, aged 23, native and resident
of Croce Coperta, unmarried, peasant, surnamed 11 Frate, hitherto unin-
dicted.

16. Mita Francisco, son of Girolamo living, aged 30, native and resident
of San Spirito, unmarried, baker, surnamed Paradiso, hitherto unindicted.

17. Meluzxi Paulo, son of Giuseppe deceased, native of Giardiiio, residing
in San Spirito, unmarried, laborer, surnamed Merlone, hitherto unindicted.

18. Folli Domenico, son of Simon living, native of San Spirito, resident
of Croce in Campo, unmarried, peasant, aurnamod 11 fratello di Battistazza,
hitherto unindicted.

19. Luzzi Lorenzo, sou of Luigi li\ang, aged 23, native of Dozza, resident

0, hitherto

tivo of Sun
lierlo unin-

of Ortodo-
olo Gruude,

denl of San
utrto uniu-

[■ San Pros-
t, s urn timed
nncd to juil

nd resident

oce Coperta,
idicted.
tiilupo, resi-
ga, liitlierto

Spirito, resi-
no, hitherto

Ortodonico,
olo I'iccolo,

md resident
itherto uu-

ve and resi-
uic del Cas-

Cumpiano,
lierto unin-

Ind resident
liurto unin-

lid resident
liindietcd.
lo, residing
Inindicted.
Lo, resident
Jattistazza,

ta, resident

APPENDIX.

6S3

of Linnro, unninrricd, laborer, surnanicd 11 Rosso di Linaro, hitherto indict-
ed for lnrceny.

20. Tu/.zi Paolo, son of Battista living, aged 21, native of Dozzn, living in
Dozzii, unmarried, pca-^ant, siiruamed Uui Torteili, hitlKMto unindieted.

21. Moiiteveculiio (Jai-tano, son of Bartolommco, aged 18, native of Casola
Caiiina, resident of Bubauo, unuuirried, laborer, surnamcd 11 figlio di Zar-
dono, lieretofurii imrK'lcd for liolding arms.

22. Lanzoni (iiusuppe, son of I'ietro livimr, aged 22, native and resident
of Bubano, nuirried, coachman, alias 11 Bologneso alias 11 Brigantc, hitherto
nnindiuted.

2=$. Bultnuni Domcnieo, son of Giuseppe living, aged 21, native of Dozza,
resident of Imola, unmarried, porter, alias Liscino aliiw 11 liglio di Giubafelto
lungo, hitherto unindictcd.

24. Zauuni Luigi, son of Giusoppe living, aged 21, native and resident of
Castel Bolognese, umnarried, laborer, surnamed Delia Lolla, heretofore un-
indicted.

25. Kossini Gi'.iseppe, son of Domenieo Antonio living, aged 83, native of
Sant' Andrea, resident of Felisio, married, trader in hogs, surnamed Luma-
ca, hitherto uniudieted.

2(3. Minghetti Antonio, son -"f Giuseppe living, aged 22, native of Zello,
resident of Borello near Castel Bologneoe, peasant, unmarried, Burnamed
Cas&inettu, hitherto uniudieted.

The following persons wero judged and condemned as equally guilty:

27. Alboui Sebastiano, so'-' of Giuseppe living, aged 33, native of Casola
Canina, bricklayer, suriuuvl Figlio di Preseiutto, resident of Imola, indict-
ed for robbery, was eonv-ftcc' of public violence and extortion of money,
but only by circuinstantir'.i evidence, and hence condemned to five years of
imprisonment.

28. Martelli Pietro, sen of Vincenzo, aged 2o, native of Caccianello, resi-
dent of Sat! Spirito, i".i>.rried, laborer, surnamed Cicala, heretofore unin-
dictcd, was convicted M' public violence and extortion of money, but only
by circumstantial ev'i'jnce, and hcneo was condenmed to five years' im-
prisonment.

20. Dal Pozzo V'li 3enzo, son of Domcnieo, deceased, aged 37, native of
Piedcvra, residen*- rf Imola, married, has children, country agent, surmnned
11 fattore Zaelia, hitherto uniudieted, stands confessed of public violcnco
for tlie purpt^so of extorting money. Condemned to three years on Iho
public works.

30. Manarii' Giovanni, son of Giuseppe, living, aged 18, native and resi-
dent of To>'!i'nella, hitherto nnind'eted, convicted Ijy circumstantial evi-
dence of t''.*^. robbery on Antonio Longhini, condenmed lo ten years of
imprisoiuiifnt.

31. Pa'tuelli Giovanni, son of Domenieo, living, aged 25, native of Pira^
tello, resident of Borgo Appio d' Imola, unmarrieJ, laijorer, surnamed Mer*
lotto, hitherto uniudieted, convicted by circumstantial evidence of the rob-
bery on Antonio Contoli, condenmed to ten years' imprisonment.

ill

!i-.

584

AITKNUIX.

82. Vcsplj.'iiiiiii Franccsoo, son of I'ictro of Iliolo, ilccoased, ngcd 13, Bur-
naniod Mnttiolino, liithcrto miindictod, confcsaod to tlio robbery on Do-
menioo BiHsuiii, Hciitcncod to bo ko[it Ibr thrco years In a hotiso of cor-
rection,

88. Dull 'Osso Doineiiifo, tson of (Jiiiscppc, deceased, n{,'ed 44, native of
Minaro, resident of Orlodoniuo, married, sunmined Minj^ono dcila I'alazza,
hitherto unindietcd, convicted l)y cireiunslantial evidence of lioldinir and
possessiMj; arms, confessed to trailini? in stolon goods, condemned to three
years on tlic pni)lie works.

84. San^'iorgi Ciiiiscppe, son of Vinccnzo, livinff, aged 22, mimarried, na-
tive and resident of Kiolo, iiaekdrlvcr, siirnamcd Fittonu, heretofore indicted
for roijbery and intlicting wounds; and,

35. Zaccarini Domenico, son of Luigi, living, aged 33, native and resident
of Kiolo, married, cartman, surnameil II Mantovano, heretofore condemned
for larceny to tifteen days of imprisonment and one year on the publio
works.

The two last wore legally indicted for tlie robbery oa Domenico Bassani,
but the proofs being insullieient for thoir condemnation, the proceedings
will bo stayed in botli their cases.

Ilis Excellency Lieutenant Marshal, Governor, Military and Civil, of Bo-
logna, taking into consideration the youthful age of some of those con-
denmed to death, the confession made l>y them, the real advantages resulting
therefrom to the puljlic safety; and again, in the case of some, the secondary
part which tiiey bore in committing the abovcmentioned crimes, has granted
a commutation of the sentence of tleath in favor of the following indi-
viduals :

1. Mondelli Domenico, to twenty years of imprisonment.

2. FoUi Domenico, to tifteen

3. Luzzi J.orenzo, to liftccn •

4. Tozzi Paolo,
;'). Montcvccehi Gactano,

6. l.anzoni Giuseppe,

7. Beltrami Domenico,

8. Zannoni Luigi,
'J, Minghetti Antonio,

10. Kossiiii Giuseppe,

■ to ten years of imprisonment.

OFFICIAL LETTER WRITTEN BY MONSEIGNEUR BEDINI, THE
DAY AFTER UGO BASSES EXECUTION,

To the Commission of three Cardinals named hy the Pope to gowi n during his

absence.

MoFT Eminent Lords :

As I have already informed your Eminences, the noted Ugo Bassi was ar
rested in the Bosco Eliseo, in tlie territory of Ferrara, and brought hera
with the other prisoners of Garibaldi's band, whose destination is Mantua.

c(l 13, Hur-
ry on Do-
jse of cor-

, native of
Uti I'alnzza,
oKliii? and
ocl to three

lurried, iiii-
)ro indicted

nd resident

condemned

tlio public

ico BiiPSHnl,
proccedin^rt

'ivil, of Bo-
[■ tliOHO con-
fcs rcsultinji
10 secondary
irts granted
owing indi-

)INI, THK
during his

lissi was ar
)uglit hera
1 is Mantua.

APFEN'r)IX.

6S5

I now Icnrn tliut, nt tiio instant of his arrest, BuHsi waj* asked his rani<, and
replied that liu was an olliccr in Garibaldi's service; and, in fact, ho was in
nrniH wlien taken.

The conscfiucnce of this waf<, thnt, in accordance with the Ifjijfi uliitarin,
ho was sentenced and shot (paimto per h arini) along with an Austrian
deserter, tlio olllciul gazeUo annuuncing him merely as "tlio note.l Ugo
Bassi." Neither I nor Ills Kminonce the arclihishnp, ii])on wliom I liavo
just called, received the slightest intimation tliat tiiis execution was to tako
place; of wliicli eircutnstances 1 inform your Emiiifnces, as in duty bound,
to forestall any reproach.

I have the honor, &c.,

G. Bkuim,
Pontifical Conunissarv Extraordinary.
Bologna, August 9th, 1849.

LETTERS OF THE CHAPLAIN WHO ATTENDED PATIIEU BASSL

Santa Mauia della Cauita, \
Ji'iilogna, August 8, 1849. )
Your Eminence :

Summoned at three-quarters past ten by a police agent to proceed with
another priest, at eleven o'clock on that day, to the Villa Spada, to assist
two men whose names were not given,* and who were to umlergo the pen-
alty of death thnt day, I was compelled to refuse, in conaQquence of the
Oflico in the church and the Mass to bo chanted at the very hour of
eleven. To provide at tlie moment lor the pressing demand, 1 requested, by
virtue of the power given nie by your Eminence on tho 7tli of June, the
Kcv. Ludovieo I'aolo Casali, and my chaplain, Cajutan Baccolini, who readily
undertook it, confident that 1 would relieve them, as I proposed, at mid-
day.

They were conducted at eleven to the Villa Spada in n carriage, and re-
mained unemployed till noon. At twelve they were introduced into the
solitary chamber, in which were detained Father Ugo Rnssi, a Barnabite, and
Giovanni Livraghi, of the district Varese, province of Milan, brother of tho
parish priest of Montunato. Tho priests above named soon influenced tho
condemned to approach sacramental confession with resignation and truly
Christian sentiments. Both received all the comforts of religion possible in
such an urgent hasto, evincing their earnest desire to receive sacramental
communion. Edifying indeed, your Eminence, was the deportment of both,
and the heroic resignation of Father Bassi deserves especial remembrance.

• The note ran .

"You win please send at eleven o'clock two priests to the Villa Spada, to assist two,
who are to sutiftT the penalty of death to-day.""

ci-Ht

ill

586

APPENDIX.

To lii« MiiiopfP rrpoiitaiK'o ho ii'MiuI tlic ni(>r<t cnriHid rntnictdtion, wliicli h«
would liavc put ill vvritiiiif, hiul it been permitted liim. IIo cluirtfod tlio
prie;*t BiK'oolini, and it, wim also liciifd iiy tlio SiiriMr (';if«ali, wlio wai* prcrt-
cut, to Mi;il<o it Iniowii to c\cr\ Itoily, ai'.d al:«o to rcciui'st tlic I'liflicr IVoviii-
c'ial, I). I'aolo Vi'iiturini, Id liavo it inserted in tlu) pii[iurt*, I'T tim iiul)lio
editinitioh and lii.>* own .justilioatioii, 'I'lio followinif wordn were pcnnitlod,
l>y tile slinrtnoss tif tiie tiiiK' : " II' tliiTo is ever Cnuiid, in aiiv wriiiiiir of
tiiiiio, a word, jM-oposition, or m:i\iin whati'vcr, oH'oiisivc to picfv, prnpiicty,
roli^'ion, I Inti'iid ami wixli it retrncliul in tlio nio.Ht ()()r<itive and olllcaeiuuu
tnanner ; and ho, too, I iiilcml of any word or npeecli inadi- in public or jiri-
vnte, wisliinjr to repair any .-icaiKlai, and aid tlu) spiritual food of ail ; 1)0-
eaiiso 1 wisli and desire to die as a true Koniaii Calliolie, I eoniiiuMid niy-
heit' to my belmed brethren of my order, my family, ami ail j/ood men;"
nnd lie ordered to he expcndefl in Ma>f«es the ten ncudi wliieli lie had ; two
of wliieh lie 1,'ave to tlie priest Baceolini for Masses, and tlie otlicr eii'lit, wliieh
ho thou!,'lit mitflil he money smit him ye^terday by his sister, and now in
the hands of tlie Austrian Aiwlitor, and whieli ho will deposit in tho polico-
otllee, wlieii drawn by tlie said priest, should i)e triven lialf to the Saerlsly of
Santa Maria dellu Carita, and half to the liurnabite Fatiiers, fur Masses as
above.

In thifl rosiirnation he remained till one ft'eloek in the afternoon, when
tho condemned were brou<fht near the porticoes of the Certosa and shot,
constantly attended by the aboveuamed j>riests, who t'urthermore testify
that they heartl from the lips of Fatlier Hassi the followim,' expressions: " I
bejj i)ardon of all, I pardon all. 1 ur'.'e all to be faithi'd to reliudon, nnd I re-
joice to be able to die under the patroiia,!,'o of the Blessed Vir^'in of San
Luca."

This I now, in all spiritual joy, eonnniinicaio to your Kminonco, ntul, with
tho assistant priests who sign witli me, kiss the sacred purple, nnd declare
ourselves

Voiir Eminence's most humble servants,

AoosTiNo Kkci, Pdi'iKu Prient.
Don LnioVK') I'aiilo Casali.
iJoN Galtano Baccolini.

To his Eminence, the Mos^

Rev, Cardinal Chakles Oppizoni,

Ai'clihishop of Bologna.

BoLooNA, Santa Maria della Carita, )
Avgunt 8, 1849. f

fllosT REVEnr-Nr P. ■'her Superior:

I hasten to fulfil a o.vt moiM-nful duty, by informing your Reverence of
the recent death :f y.i '".ilow-rcligious, Father Uiro Bassi, who, as you
will see by the giu'd.-i .•. Uiis city, was shot at twelve o'clock to-day. I
cannot sufficiently praisi t le p!,tieiice ai.d .■r'si^':nation witli wliieh, in tho

wlilcli ho
irtfcd tlio
ivui* prcrt-
r I'rovin-
lll! piit)lio
icrinitloil,
.vriiliiir of
liri'iiiii'ty,
I'lliciK-'ioim
ilio or iiri-
il" nil; be-
lUMul iiiy-
[)tl iiu'ii ;"
liud ; two
'ht, whiuli
id now ill
tlio policc-
^iicriBly of
Masses lis

0011, wlieii
uiul siiot,
iro testify
isioiis : " I
ami 1 re-
fill of Sua

uul, with
(1 docluro

Pried.
'asali.

i\.

.RITA

lirence of

na you

i)-day. I

li, in tho

APPENDIX.

fi87

nhort time nllowcd him, he prep iiv 1 for dcnth ; and f can 'n ixll tmth and
•iiiufrity iiK^urc yoii that liu ftiltlllod nil (Ke duties of rclit;ioii, iw^^i'ii; •
pood '^(infcssioii, niid rcculvii)i( hII oilior Kpinti.-il comfortM poi»sil>l«, in >ucli t
•lioit iiivl nu'liinclioly re-p.te, witli sciitiinuiits of the hiKhfst and miohI exem-
pl:ir\ odillctition. Fiitiior Biu>»i espeeiidly <.liuixud tliocousv.ionooot'the under-
Bi>;nod his ooiifossor, to asmiro tho V«ry Kov. Father Proviiieiul, D. Puolo Von -
turiiil, cr Ills reprcsoiitfttlve, ns he was ftb»ciit from Bolosfiui, ot'tlie niucority
of li'- «oi.'iiiH'iUs, and to (K'clarc tliat ho iiover took any pail in tho roMuir-
lO* .1.:. iii'i 'dors, even of these latest times; but tliiit, an far us ho eonld, lio
hnJ BOuglit to prevent all possilih; injury; and that lio Ciirnestly de^ircJ
tlui* tliJH U'^li the Fatlier Provincial, or some otlKsr, tlie'c slionld ho piililislied
in tiie public papurs his most clear and solemn retrnctation, hcsceehiiijr the
Fatlur I'ruvincial himself to declare as follows to all. These arc Father
Bad-i'» own words: " If there is ever found in any writing of iniiio, any
w. r<i, proposition, or maxim whatever, otf.'tisivc to piety, propriety, ndiyiou,
I inteiul and wish it lelractcd in tiio most positive and ulllcacinus inain r;
Rnd «o, too, I intend of any word or speech made in imhlic or priv.te;
wishiiij,' to repair every scandal I may have niveii, and aid in the spiriu.al
good of all, becauise I desire and wi.-^li to ilie a true IJoniaii (,'atholic." Ifo
commended himself to his beloved brethren of his reli>fious order, to liiiJ
relatives and all good men, and directed that ten scudi, that ho had, bo ex
pended in tifty iNhisses tor the repose of his soul, and that of liis father, and
of his comrade, (.'a))tain Giovanni Livraglii.

Before givimr up \\\^ f*ouI to God, on arriving at the place of execution, ho
repeated the following expressions, fixing his eyes on the sanctuary of San
Lnca, which he coniinually regarded : " 1 l)('g jmrdoii of all, 1 i)ardon all.
I recommend lii.lelity to religion, and rejoice to bo able to expire in peace,
under the jirotoction of tho Ulessod Virgin of San Lr.ea." It was his wish
to put in writing u more extended retractation, l)iit pai)er was refused him.
lie, however, ratified what he said in presence of two priests, most worthy
of all crcilit. All this 1 have already written to tho most eminent Cardinal-
iirchbisliop, to whom 1 showed tlie propriety, utility, and neoes.sity of giving
it pu))lie notice, for the example of all, and in liappy memory of him wlio
wished to end his life in such full sentiments of religion.

In mo you will ev r find, as in tho confessor of tho deceased and iho as-
sistant priest, a true and devoted servant.

Your humble servants,

Agosti.no Ricci, Parish Priest.

D. LuDovico Paolo Casali.

D. Gaetano Baccoum, Confea«or.

To tho Very Rev. Father

Al£s»andso Maori,

Superior of the Barnabitta

at Santa Lucia, Bologna.

■

588

Ari'ENDIX.

RESCRIPT OF iMONSlGNOKE GAETANO BEDINI,

Commissan/ Exlraordinar;/ of the Punr Lrrjatiom, and Pro-Legate of Bologna,
endor.mi on the request to insert in the (xcizzetta of Bologna the Eetractalion of
Falher Ugo Bcissi, a Barnabite, shot on the Sth of Aitgmt, 18-49.

Tlio letter of the pastor of La Caritu nuiy bo published on obtaining the
consent of the Austrian niilitarj- authority, ■which is actually invested with
extraordinary powers in the Four Legations, and which principally, or rather
exclusively has been judge in this case.

G. Bedim.

LETTER OF THE SUPERIOR OF THE BARNABITES.

BoLOGXA, August 12, 18-1'J.
Eev. Sm

I regret to inform you that, in spite of all my endeavors to insert in tiie
Gazzetta of Bologna the account of the editying death of Father Bassi, I
have not yet succeeded. His Eminence and RIonsitrnor Bedini consent, and
desire that it may be made public ; but tiie political censor, Monsignor
Gariibcrini, docs not thiidc himself at liberty to allow its appearance, es-
pecially in the Gazzclta. witiiout an explicit approvnl of the authoi'itics, as
lie states in writing, alid with more clearnc>s in words, without the appro-
bation of the Austrian police, ■which lie foresees will easily bo obtained.
To-morrow, however, tiie said Monsignor Gamberini will have an interview
with the Commissary Plvtraordinary of these four jirovinces, Monsignor
Bedini ; but 1 foresee that they will come to no definite conclusion. If you
Bee any means of attaining our end, you will confer a great favor on me by
letting me know.

In tlie mean time, I take tliis opportunity to express for myself and all my
fellow-religious, the sentiments of our lively gratitude for the touching proof
of zeal given by you in all that concerns the honor and name of our poor
Father Bassi and us his fellow-religion=

In these unalterable sentiments, I have the honor to subscribe myself.
Your Reverence's

Most humble servant,

D. Alessandro Maori,

Suverior of Sta. Lucia.

To the Eev. AooaTiNO Ricci,

Pattor of Sta, Maria della Carita,

)/■ Bologna,
nidation of

aining the
ested with
>', or rather

. Bedini.

ES.
12, 1849.

isert in tlie
iier Bassi, I
on sent, unci
Monsi!^'nor
rauce, os-
ni'ities, as
he appro-
obtained,
interview
Monsiirnor
n. If you
on me by

and all my
?liing proof
if our poor

myself,

1",

Sta. Lucia.

APPENDIX. 689

EEMARKS OF THE EDITOR.

These documents reached Mr. de Courcy just on tlie eve of his departure,
and he alludes briefly to lliem in his cijapter on the Nunciature. To any
impartial reader they sliow,

1. That the Austrians held Bologna in a state of siege, and that Monsignor
Bedini had really no power in Bologna.*

2. That the fifty men sliot were mostly banditti, condemned for robbery,
murder, rape, &c., and consequently no martyra to the cause of liberty.

3. That Father Bassi and his companion were taken as officers of Garibal-
di's corps, and as such shot.

4. That Father Bassi's execution was done in great haste and privacy,
without the knowledge of Cardinal Oppizoni or Monsignor Bedini.

5. That Bassi never was degraded, consequently did not undergo the
flight scraping of the thumb and finger; and that to represent him and the
forty-nine others as being fiayed alive ! can be accounted for only on the
principle of the story of the "Three Black Crows."

C. That Baasi died a Christian, repenting his unpriestly conduct, retracting
all that he said against Catholic faith.

7. That Monsignor Bedini, Cardinal Oppizoni, and the Superior of the
Barnabites, endeavored, but in vaiu, to have the retractation of Father Bassi
published.

♦ Extract from a Note presented by the Sardinian Plenipotentiaries, Cavour and
Villamarina, to the French and English Ministers at the Peace Congress.

" The Legations have been occupied by Au-trian troops since 1849. Tlie state of
siege and martial law have been in vigor since that time, without interruption. The
Pontifical government onlt/ ccrists in name, since above its legates an Aitstrian
general takes the tit's and exercises the functions of civil and military governor.

" Pabis, March 27th, 1856."

1'^

I '. ' i'i

1!;

590 APPEXDIX.

VI.

DOCUMENTS KELATING TO MONSIGNOR BEDINFS MISSION
TO THE UNITED STATES.

[copy.]

Legation des Etats-Unis d'Asierique, )
Rome^ le 19 Mars^ 1853. )

Le flou?8ign^,Charg^ d'Affaires dcs Etats-Unis d'Anieriqiic, a Thonnenr
d'aceuser reception ^ la communication du 17 Mars de Son Eminence Kme.
Ic Cardinal Secretaire d'Etat, qui lui annonce le prochain depart do Moa-
seigneiir Bedini, Arehcv^cjue de Thebes, et Nonce Apostolique pres la Cour
Imperiale du Brt'sil, oliarge d'une mission complimentaire aupres du Presi-
dent dcs Etats-Unis d'Amerique. Le soussigne a re^u cette intelligence
avcc ic plus vif inter^t et il s'cmpresscra de la cominuniquer a son gouver-
nement. Assurant d'avance Sou Eminence Rme. de la reception cordialo
que Monseigncur Bedini regevra de son gouvernement, ct de Textr^mo
pluisir qu'eprouvera le President des Etats-Unis d'Amerique de cette favo-
rable marque des sentimens du Saint Pere, il profit de cette occasion pour
lui tdmoigner I'expression de sa plus haute consideration.

(Signe) Cass.

A Son Eminence lime.

Le Cardinal Antonelli,

Secretaire d'Etat.

[Copy.— No. 55.]

Legation of the United States, I
Rorne^ March 20, 1853. )

Hon. Edward Everett,

Secretary of StaU .

Sib:

I have the honor to transmit herewith the trnnalation of a comnnmication
wljich I have just received from Cardinal Antonelli, Secretary of State.

The reverend gentleman, Monseigneur Bedini, therein mentioned, is a
prelate of high standing in the Catholic Church, and distinguished for his
learning and attainments. He has filled several important posts in the civil
and ecclesiastical departments of this government under the present Pope,
as well as his predecessor, Gregory thj Sixteenth. His oflicial designation
is Monseigneur Bedini, Archbishop of Thebes, and Apostolic-nuncio to the
Court of the Brazils.

The mission thus conferred upon him is a new and additional testimonial

'U'l

[ISSION

;rique, I

rhonneur
lence Kine.
•t do Moii-
•(J6 111 (Jour
» dn I'l'c'rti-
iitellisenco
Dii gouver-
011 cordiiilo
! Textr^mo

cctte tiivo-
!Usion pour

1 CaS3.

TATE8

unication
tato.

ned, i» a
d for his
1 the civil
ent Popo,
isignation
;io to the

iBtimoniol

APPENDIX.

591

of the highly favorable and friendly sentiments entertained by His Holiness
Pins IX. towards the government and institutions of the United States.
Monseigneur Bedini will probably arrive in Washington within eight or ten
days subsequent to the receipt of this dispatch. He will remain there, I
understand, but a few days.

I am. Sir, very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,
(Signed) Lewis Cass.

THE BSD.

MWietli

Mom 1 K<.-,*aL,

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